


The Sun Will Be Guiding You

by Rionaa



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ambassador Sokka (Avatar), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Fake Character Death, Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Gay Zuko (Avatar), Grief/Mourning, Kyoshi Warrior Sokka, M/M, Mutual Pining, Podfic to follow, spymaster sokka au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27402514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rionaa/pseuds/Rionaa
Summary: “Who are you, and what do you want?” He demanded, standing over her.“A-Ambassador Sokka-”“Answer me. Who do you work for? What is your job here?”“I’m supposed to kill you.”[When Sokka is targeted by a rebel organisation and narrowly avoids assassination, he decides to fake his own death and try to stop the organisation from killing the rest of his friends. Meanwhile, the rest of the gaang struggle to come to terms with his loss, and Zuko regrets not acting on his feelings for Sokka.]ORA Spymaster Sokka AU, inspired by zukkababey.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara & Suki (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 170
Kudos: 321
Collections: Zukka Spymaster AU





	1. Golden (As I Open My Eyes)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zukkababey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zukkababey/gifts), [annesbonny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annesbonny/gifts), [vandrell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vandrell/gifts).



> This fic is based on [this thread](https://zukkababey.tumblr.com/search/spymaster%20sokka) on [zukkababey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zukkababey)'s tumblr.
> 
> I have a playlist for this fic, which you can listen to [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=j1zMYxUGR1a7kOTg6Ruo7Q).
> 
> Many thanks to Beck and Kit for beta-ing this for me! You can find them on tumblr at [ohmyzukka](https://ohmyzukka.tumblr.com/) or on AO3 at [annesbonny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annesbonny/pseuds/annesbonny), and at vandrell on [tumblr](https://vandrell.tumblr.com/) and [AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vandrell)
> 
> Fic title is from [Run Boy Run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0) by Woodkid  
> 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka has been working as an ambassador to the Fire Nation for the past few years, and his friendship with Zuko has been growing stronger the whole time. But when Sokka was ready to take the step from platonic to romantic, Zuko pushed his own feelings away, fearing for Sokka's safety if their relationship were to become public. But as it turns out, holding back wouldn't be enough to keep Sokka safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I cannot descirbe how excited I am to finally be publishing this! The Spymaster Sokka AU is one of the first things I engaged with when I joined the fandom, and I wrote this fic all the way back in August, but I didn't feel ready to post it until now. I really hope you enjoy my take on it.

It wasn’t often that the Fire Lord had a vocal disagreement with one of his ambassadors, or in fact with any of the staff and foreign dignitaries who resided in the palace. But this was no ordinary disagreement, and no ordinary ambassador. It was well known that Zuko was close with the Ambassador for the Southern Water Tribe, and the two could often be seen together in the palace, even when there was no official business. Truthfully, they had become best friends even before Zuko had taken the Fire Nation’s throne, and their camaraderie had continued and strengthened. Zuko trusted Sokka with more than anyone else except perhaps the Avatar, and even then, his bond with the airbender was different, as he spent most of his time travelling the rest of the world. But Sokka spent most of his time there, in the Fire Nation capital.

One of the first things Zuko did as Fire Lord was to send out a team to find and retrieve Sokka’s space sword. He knew it was frivolous, but somehow, knowing that it would make Sokka happy meant that it was worth it. That sword had been one of the things that tied Sokka to his identity as a warrior, and although he knew that he was more than the things he owned, he had felt its loss deeply. Sokka had definitely not burst into tears when Zuko had presented it to him proudly when he asked him to act as Ambassador for the Southern Water Tribe. Okay, so maybe he had a little bit, but they were manly tears.

When either of the two men found themselves unable to sleep for the nightmares, they would knock on the other’s door, and keep each other company for the rest of the night. When one of the generals was being unreasonable and harking back to Ozai’s reign, Sokka would step in and defend Zuko’s ruling.

When Zuko came out as gay, Sokka had been the first person he told. He had been shaking with nerves, cringing away from his friend as though afraid he would strike him, or break ties with him. Instead, Sokka had just laughed and asked how he could judge Zuko for that, when he was bisexual himself.

When Zuko had overturned one particular law instated by Ozai, he had turned to Sokka with a grin on his face, and informed him that if he wanted, he could now get married to any Fire Nation citizen. Sokka had smiled in response, but it had been a little strained.

Sokka had been in love with Zuko for years. He knew that the Fire Lord knew. Once, they had both gotten a little too drunk in the palace gardens, and Sokka had kissed Zuko by the turtleduck pond. Zuko had kissed back, with enthusiasm, but the next day, he had avoided Sokka completely. Sokka had thought that Zuko must have been disgusted by him, until he had managed to corner the other man.

“Why are you hiding from me?”

“I’m not hiding!”

“Yes you are. Is this because of what happened last night?”

“I… what happened last night?” Zuko wouldn’t meet Sokka’s eyes, so he knew that he remembered more than he was letting on, but he had left it at that. If he wanted to pretend that the kiss hadn’t happened, that was fine with Sokka. Really, it was. He could forget it ever happened, too.

Except, that that hadn’t been what happened at all. Instead, Sokka found that the kiss kept playing on his mind. Zuko’s lips had been slightly chapped, and they both tasted of alcohol and there had been slightly too much tongue and a bit too much teeth, but to Sokka, it had been perfect. He had held Zuko’s face in his hands and felt the heat coming off the firebender, in the way that only happened when they were feeling a very strong emotion, such as fear, anger, or… desire?

And Zuko had kissed him back. That was what Sokka kept coming back to in his head. At first, he had been worried that he had forced himself on his friend, that he hadn’t wanted it, but the way Zuko’s surprise had quickly shifted, his tense muscles had melted under Sokka’s touch, and he had let out a soft sound halfway between a gasp and a moan, and started to move against Sokka. Zuko hadn’t known what to do with his hands but eventually he had cupped one around the back of Sokka’s head and the other had settled on his waist, pulling him closer. Sokka definitely hadn’t imagined that.

In conclusion, Zuko had definitely wanted to kiss him. But how much of that was to do with the alcohol? Had he only kissed back because Sokka was simply a warm body, and Zuko hadn’t been with anyone since Mai, before he’d even joined the Avatar?

In the end, it hadn’t been Sokka who had brought up the kiss. Just as he had been about to get into bed, almost a month after it had happened, there had been a soft knock on the door. Sokka had padded over to open in, and had found Zuko standing there in the soft robe he wore to bed. He had looked nervous, refusing to meet Sokka’s eye.

“Can we go for a walk?”

“Sure,” Sokka smiled encouragingly, “let me just grab my shoes.”

They had walked through the gardens in silence. Sokka waited for Zuko to talk about what was on his mind. They didn’t always talk on their late night excursions, he knew that sometimes they simply needed company while they replaced the noise in their head with the silence of the gardens. But something told him that tonight, Zuko needed to talk.

“I remember what happened.” Zuko finally spoke.

“What what?” Sokka asked, confused.

“The other night. By the pond.”

Oh.

_Oh._

Sokka felt his heart-rate pick up.

“You do?” apparently, they were going to talk about this after all.

“I do.” Zuko confirmed.

“Oh.” They continued walking for a few more minutes, but where the silence before had been companionable, now it was tense and loaded with something Sokka couldn’t name.

“What did you think?” Sokka asked eventually. He winced slightly at his wording and expected Zuko to make a joke along the lines of a _4/5 star review, would recommend to a friend._

But instead, Zuko cleared his throat softly. “I liked it.”

Sokka was speechless for a moment. “You did?”

“I did. But we can’t.”

What?

“What do you mean? You already changed the laws, you can kiss who you want to.”

“I know, but I don’t want to.”

“Oh.” Sokka was stung. He knew that Zuko had been into the kiss, there was no doubt in his mind about that. But what if Zuko had only kissed him back because he felt some obligation to do so? No. Zuko wouldn’t do that. Maybe he just wanted to kiss someone, anyone, and it didn’t matter that it was his best friend because he was just… what, just horny? Sokka knew that Zuko hadn’t kissed anyone since coming out, which meant that he was the first time Zuko had kissed another man. But what did that mean? Had Zuko just been using him for his body? Did he know that Sokka fancied him and was just taking advantage of that?

“Wait, no, I didn’t mean that.”

“What did you mean then? Explain.”

Zuko took both of Sokka’s hands in his and looked into his eyes, pleadingly. “Sokka, I want to kiss you so much. I want to hold your hand, I want you to sit by my side not just as my ambassador but as my partner. I want to share everything I have with you. But I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?” Sokka felt like he was dying. For so long, he had told himself that he couldn’t have this, could never have this, and now he was finding out that Zuko wanted him back, but for some reason there was still something stopping them.

“Because you deserve so much better than me! Sokka, you deserve someone whole, someone who isn’t broken like I am.”

“Zuko-!” Sokka was lost for words. He knew that Zuko felt badly about himself, but somehow he had missed the extent of it.

“Besides,” Zuko continued, barely stopping for breath, “I can’t put you in danger like that. Being with me would make you a target, and the fact that you’re a man just makes it worse. There are plenty of people who don’t like the fact that I changed those laws, and this would just be giving them an excuse. I can’t do that to you. I have to keep you safe. Please understand.”

Sokka took a step back, shaking Zuko’s hands off his own. “No. I don’t understand. You’re worth so much to me, you’re worth that and more. Besides, I’m already a target to plenty of people, I helped to take down your father, I hardly think this would do much to change that.”

“I’m sorry Sokka, but we can’t be together.”

“Fine.” Sokka turned and strode back into the palace, leaving the Fire Lord standing in the middle of the garden, bathed in moonlight and looking more lost than he had done in a very long time.

Things had been weird for a while after that. Although they were both perfectly civil in sessions, they no longer met up outside of meetings. Zuko no longer knocked on Sokka’s door seeking company, and when Sokka screamed himself awake from his own nightmares, he would roll over and stare at the wall until the sunrise chased away the shadows. 

This continued for several weeks, until their friends arrived for the anniversary celebrations for the end of the war. Both Aang and Katara noticed that something was up immediately, and after a very tense dinner with the five of them, in which Sokka and Zuko awkwardly attempted conversation and huffed when they accidentally talked over one another, Katara dragged her brother off for a _talk_ , while Aang pulled Zuko to another part of the palace for a similar reason. It hadn’t taken much prodding from Katara before Sokka was spilling his guts about what had happened between the two of them.

“-and he didn’t even let me know that he remembered until like a month after it happened, and I spent all that time tearing myself apart with guilt thinking I took advantage of him or something, when in fact he did remember, he’s probably just ashamed of me or something.”

“Sokka, I’m sure that’s not the case. Have you actually spoken to him since that conversation you had?”

“Well, yes, we work together, but not about this.”

“Well, you can’t resolve this without actually talking it through with him. I think you should try telling him how you feel. How can you expect to be able to run the world together if you can’t even communicate with each other about your own feelings?”

Sokka sighed. “Maybe you’re right. Spirits, Katara, how did you get so wise?”

Katara laughed. “I guess hanging around with Aang for so long, some of his Avatar-ness must have rubbed off on me!” Sokka just grinned at her, and she gave him a soft shove on the shoulder. “Now go and get your man!”

So Sokka had done that. He had approached the corner of the garden where he had seen Aang leading Zuko, and found the two men still deep in conversation. Sokka debated sneaking closer to attempt to eavesdrop on their conversation, but decided against it. Perhaps a few years ago he would have felt no qualms about invading his friends’ privacy, especially when he was 99% sure that they were talking about him, but he realised that perhaps Katara wasn’t the only one who had done some growing up. Instead, he climbed up to sit in the crook of a nearby tree branch. (Okay, so maybe he had grown up, but he wasn’t too grown up to still climb trees!) From his perch, he couldn’t hear their conversation, but he would be able to see when it was over, and he was able to have his own conversation with Zuko.

Soon enough, Aang got to his feet, and after laying a comforting hand on Zuko’s shoulder, headed back into the palace. Zuko watched him go, and Sokka was just too far away to make out the expression on his face, but then he buried his face in his hands. Sokka jumped down from the tree, and hesitantly approached his friend, making no effort to silence his footfalls, but Zuko still jumped when Sokka sat down on the bench beside him.

“Sokka!”

“Hi, Zuko...” Sokka reached up and scratched his neck, awkwardly.

“Are you- is everything okay? How’s Katara?”

“Everything’s fine. Listen, Zuko, we should probably talk.”

Zuko swallowed, then nodded.

“So, you probably already know that I have feelings for you. Romantic-styles.”

“I know. And I- also have feelings for you. Romantic-styles. But-”

“You do?” Sokka cut him off, feeling elated.

“But Sokka, we can’t be together.”

“Why not?”

“I already told you. It would put you in danger, and I can’t risk that. I can’t do that.”

“That’s not your decision to make!”

“It’s half my decision. And I’ve decided.”

Abruptly, Zuko got to his feet and brushed past Sokka, heading back into the palace. Sokka had just stared after him for a few minutes before realising that he was late for the closing toast.

~

Zuko and Sokka had held stilted conversations for the rest of the anniversary celebration, and when Aang and Katara had set off for the southern Air temple, Sokka had hitched a ride and continued on to the South Pole. After all, he hadn’t been home in a while, and how was he supposed to represent the Water Tribe if he was never there anyway?

Hakoda and Sokka had bonded more during the four months that he was back home than Sokka thought they ever had before. During his childhood, there had always been the threat of war, the constant Fire Nation raids, but now he and his dad could relax and discuss the future certain in the knowledge that there was one, could go on long fishing trips without worrying about abandoning the village, could bond over their individual pining.

It turned out that Sokka wasn’t the only bisexual in the family. Hakoda had been harbouring a crush on his longtime best friend for years, but only after the war had ended had he acknowledged it and it had grown into fully fledged one-sided longing. Sokka had commiserated with his father, and they had both found it freeing to openly discuss their feelings without fear of judgement or rejection. There had been tears; Sokka was man enough to admit that.

He had stayed for four months before heading back to the Fire Nation. His conversations with Hakoda had helped him to gain a new perspective on his relationship to Zuko, and he returned resolved to move past his feelings.

Zuko had welcomed him back with an uncharacteristically tight hug, and whispered in his ear _I missed you._ Sokka’s arms had risen to hug his friend back almost before he willed them to do so, and he knew in that moment that his friendship with Zuko was too precious to him to give up over something as silly as a forbidden, star-crossed romance.

Things went back to normal after that. Sokka attempted to repress his feelings as much as possible, in favour of focusing on providing Zuko with support, and was (for the most part) fairly successful. Back were the late night walks, the laughter, the deep conversations. But every so often, Sokka would stare at Zuko for a moment too long, and Zuko would catch his eye and a strange look would come over his face, halfway between delight and despair.

Once every few months or so, Sokka would subtly ask if Zuko had changed his mind, and every time, he got the same answer. _We can’t. I can’t put you in danger. You should move on, find someone else._

So Sokka had. Or at least, he had tried to.

He had taken a few women from the court on dates, even a couple of men, he had gone into the city and met with people from various social standings. He hadn’t told Zuko about any of this though.

One night, Sokka and the man who was beside him in bed were roused from a post-coital daze by a soft knock on the door. Sokka sat up instantly, Asahi blinking sleepily over towards the door.

“Shit!” Sokka leapt out of bed, grabbing a robe and wrapping it quickly around his naked body. He rushed to the door and opened it a crack, trying to hide the man still reclining almost nude in the bed. “Zuko?”

“Sokka, I was wondering if you-” Zuko trailed off, narrowing his eyes at Sokka’s rumpled appearance, “-are alright?” He finished, now craning his neck to see into the room behind Sokka. “What’s going on?”

“Uhh…” Sokka panicked, “I’ve been redecorating.”

Zuko blinked. “You have? Is that also why your robe is on inside out?”

Sokka looked down at himself. “...yep. That’s so that the paint doesn’t get over the outside of the clothes.”

“I see. Can I have a look?”

“NO!” Sokka yelped, attempting to slam the door, but Zuko was too quick, getting a foot into the crack of the door and forcing it open with a triumphant _hah!_

Then he froze. Sokka’s heart was racing in his throat as Zuko stopped in the doorway, staring as Asahi quickly pulled the blankets over himself. Where the man in the bed was flushing a deep shade of crimson, Zuko’s face went white. His smile disappeared, replaced with an almost scary blankness, and without another word, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Sokka stared helplessly after him, torn between wanting to go after him, and wanting to curl up into a ball and die of embarrassment on the spot.

After a moment, the silence was broken by Asahi’s small voice. “Did the Fire Lord just see my dick?”

~

Sokka had eaten breakfast with Zuko the next morning. He had opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get any words out, his friend was already speaking. “I’m sorry about last night. If you tell me in advance when you are likely to have… company, I will make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

He took a long sip of his tea, and Sokka took that to mean that the conversation was over. He didn’t bring anyone home again after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from [Golden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuYFtMHgfU) by Harry Styles
> 
> If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave me some feedback in the comments, or let me know on tumblr!


	2. Release the Doves (Surrender Love)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka needs a break from the palace and from Zuko, so when the Fire Lord receives a death threat, Sokka joins the Kyoshi Warriors to hunt down whoever sent it. What no one is expecting is for Sokka himself to be targeted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from [The Phoenix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JqY-6q-RNA) by Fall Out Boy
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=G835l5zTQ2erIaLW9M4zrw)

Sokka didn’t get to go on these missions very often, but this one was a special case. He rarely had the opportunity to show off his Kyoshi warrior training, but right now, he was wearing the uniform, clutching the fans, alongside Suki and ten other warriors.

If you asked Sokka why he was going with them, he would have said it was because the Fire Lord had received a death threat and the perpetrator had vanished, but it was more than that. There had been threats made on the Fire Lord’s life before, and while this one was significantly more substantial than many others (hence the deployment of the elite band of warriors), there was another reason for why Sokka was accompanying them. In short, Sokka was sulking.

Suki had led the Kyoshi warriors on the trail of the assassins to an island on the edge of the Fire Nation. They had narrowed down the possible location of the hideout to four possible locations. They had kept their arrival in the area as down low as possible, not knowing who they were able to trust, and the twelve of them were camping on the outskirts of a small port town. Sokka had volunteered for the third watch, when the night would be darkest, along with Liu, a recent recruit to the Kyoshi warriors. Although she had only been a member of the group for just under a year, she had shown an aptitude and ferocious bravery that had brought her a place as one of Suki’s most valued warriors. This was the first mission she had been on with the rest of the girls, and the first time Sokka had really spent any real amount of time with her. She didn’t seem super chatty, but he hoped that their shared guard duty might allow him the opportunity to get her to open up a bit. While Sokka knew the rest of the warriors well, as many of them also served as guards in the palace, he preferred to fight alongside people he knew, and he had promised himself that by the time they reached their quarry, he and Liu would be best of friends.

Once everyone else had gone to sleep, he looked around for Liu. To his concern, he found that he couldn’t see her anywhere. Frowning, he pushed himself to his feet and looked around the edge of the campfire. He knew that Meilin would have awoken Liu when she finished her own watch, so where could she be? Sokka listened hard, keeping his body still, straining his ears to make out any sounds in the darkness. There was a soft breeze rustling the tops of the trees and grass, night-time animals calling to one another, the soft sounds of the ocean, just out of sight. Sokka turned his head, and caught… a voice, unidentifiable and distant. As silently as possible, Sokka picked up his fans and checked that his sword was securely attached to his belt before stepping quietly towards the voice he had heard. It took a few minutes for Sokka to locate the speakers and position himself where he could hear what was being said.

“...remember that timing is everything. It needs to be just right.”

“But why?” Sokka’s breath caught in his throat. That was Liu, he was sure of it. What was she doing away from camp, and who was she meeting up with? Squinting, he leaned closer to try to catch a glimpse, as she continued speaking. “I have had many opportunities on the journey here already. It may not be so easy once we arrive. The rest of the warriors are on high alert.”

The other person spoke, an unfamiliar voice, deep and irritated. “Because we need to send a message. It’s not enough to simply kill him, we have to show the Fire Lord that no one is safe, not even his Water Tribe pet.”

Sokka’s heart-rate just about doubled, and he wasn’t able to catch the soft gasp that fell from his lips in time. They were talking about him! They were planning to kill him. He had to get back to the camp. He took a step backwards and froze when he felt a twig snap under his foot.

The voices went silent.

_Shit._

“Who’s there?”

Sokka bit his tongue, but he knew that there was no way he could get out of this. They were too far from camp for any of the other Kyoshi warriors to hear. With a heart-stopping thought, Sokka wondered how many of the other warriors were in on this too. He knew that Suki would never betray him and Zuko for sure, or Ty Lee, and a few of the others, but he didn’t know all of the rest of them as well. If he called for help, would they even come? Or would he just be putting Suki and Ty Lee in danger? He couldn’t risk it. He reached for his sword, but then thought better of it. Pulling out his fans, he planted his feet into a defensive stance and waited for them to find him.

It didn’t take long.

With a scream, Liu threw herself at him. He was surprised to notice that she was armed not with the fans that all the Kyoshi warriors carried, but with two short knives. He sidestepped her smartly and used the first move that Suki ever taught him to throw her off balance, tumbling to the ground. Growling, she got to her feet and ran at him again, knives outstretched. He parried her first blow, and caught the second on the fan in his left hand.

They exchanged a few more blows, successfully blocking one another as they got a feel for each other’s fighting style. Sokka was familiar with the techniques that the Kyoshi warriors employed, but was surprised to note that underlying that was a different kind of fierceness, a strength behind the attacks that Suki rarely encouraged. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise that she had additional training, knowing now that she clearly had ulterior motives, but Sokka hadn’t exactly had time to process everything that had happened in the past minute.

But then, Liu had suddenly got under his guard, and Sokka found his right hand empty as she wrenched the fan away from him. He aimed a swipe with the fan in his left, and she gasped as a cut opened up across her cheek. Her eyes narrowed and he felt a sharp pain in his upper arm, but didn’t stop to assess the damage.

He swapped his remaining fan to his right hand, and switched up his technique. Before, he had been subconsciously holding back, some part of him hoping that someone had slipped him cactus juice and this was some horrible hallucination, hoping that this girl hadn’t broken his trust, hadn’t betrayed Suki, hadn’t endangered _Zuko_. But she had shed Sokka’s blood, she wasn’t backing down. This was serious.

Sokka was over a foot taller than this girl, and while he knew better than to assume that his height was an advantage when it came to the rest of the warriors, Liu wasn’t fighting like they did anymore. Sokka’s reach was longer than hers, and so were his legs.

Sokka parried another thrust, then took two long leaps, ending up behind her, and using her momentary confusion to look around for the man who had been with her. There was no sign of him. That was worrying.

Snarling, she spun to face him, slashing upwards with her knife. Sokka narrowly missed being gutted like a fish by taking a step back. He felt something roll under his foot, like a small pebble or a twig. He had been backed onto a small rocky area by a stream, and the ground was very uneven. He would have to be careful so as not to lose his footing, but perhaps he could use this to his advantage?

He brought his fan down and dodged her attempt to connect their weapons. She made several attempts to land a blow on him, but he avoided them all, simply stepping out of reach and around her, until their positions were reversed.

She didn’t notice his tactics change until he suddenly moved towards her, smacking her knives aside with an aggressive sweep of his fan, and rapidly bringing it up for another swipe. He saw her eyes widen and knew that she was afraid.

Good.

He pressed his advantage and took another step towards her, forcing her to take a step back, her feet splashing as they entered the shallows of the stream.

She raised her arms to block his next attack, uncoordinated and defensive. He swung his fan to knock her off balance, but he miscalculated where the knives would end up.

He knew that one of them had hit home first by the surprised expression on her face. Then, he felt an unusual pressure in his side, just above his hip bone.

He’d just been stabbed.

_Fuck._

There was no time to worry about that now. She must be feeling victorious right now, thinking she’s defeated him, but he wasn’t dead yet. The knife was still in him, so she was currently down a weapon.

He raised his fan to strike at her arm which still held a knife, and he knew he had estimated correctly when she was slow to respond. He managed to knock the knife from her hand, and with a push to the sternum, she tripped and fell backwards, landing in the water with a splash.

She didn’t look so happy now.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” He demanded, standing over her.

“A-Ambassador Sokka-”

“ _Answer me_.”

She stared up at him, wide-eyed, and for a moment, his heart was hesitant. She looked so young, barely out of adolescence. Then again, she was doubtlessly older than he had been when he had brought down all those airships, when he had helped to bring about a positive change in the world.

“My name is Lanying.” He blinked. Okay.

“Who do you work for? What is your job here?”

“I’m supposed to kill you.”

“Oka--!”

Suddenly, Sokka was falling, his ankles swept from under him as Lanying reversed their positions. He took a huge lungful of air just before his head went under the water, and his tactical manoeuvring suddenly turned around on him.

Sokka’s limbs flailed, trying to push him upwards, but something was stopping him from breaching the surface. His chest felt heavy, like something was pressing down on it, and the part of his brain that wasn’t busy panicking realised that something was. Lanying’s foot was on Sokka’s chest, forcing his head under the water. She was trying to drown him.

He kicked out with his legs, attempting to dislodge her, but she stayed firm. He bucked his hips and felt the pressure lifted for a second, but before he could pull his head out of the water, it was back, heavier this time. She was now kneeling on his chest, and her hands reached around his neck, gripping tightly and forcing his desperate thrashing to slow.

Some small part of his mind that wasn’t busy panicking remarked wryly that it was ironic that Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, brother to one of the most powerful water benders in the world, and almost-brother-in-law to the freaking _Avatar_ , was about to die by drowning.

Sokka was sure that Zuko would have a good chuckle about that at some point in the future. Perhaps he would make a speech at Sokka’s funeral. 

Then, Sokka’s flailing arm brushed against something on the riverbed that wasn’t stone. Desperately, he wrapped his fingers around it and realised what it was.

It was Lanying’s dropped knife.

Sokka slashed wildly through the air above him, and felt Lanying’s weight shift on his chest. He made another slashing motion, and suddenly she was gone. Quickly, Sokka sat up, gasping for air. He looked around wildly and saw her a few feet away where she had fallen, clutching at her neck, which was gushing blood.

She looked up at him and reached an arm out towards him, her eyes wide, almost beseeching. He staggered over to her and with a swift motion, thrust the knife up under her chin.

As she finally stilled, Sokka sat back on his heels with a heavy exhale. She had been about to die from the wound to her neck, but he hadn’t actually set out with the intention to kill her. He had wanted to take her back to Suki and the Fire Nation capital for interrogation. She was clearly a part of a larger organisation, and that organisation clearly had a malicious agenda. And now she was dead, and no longer able to give testimony.

_Shit._

Sokka got to his feet and looked down at the knife sticking out of his side. He didn’t think it was a deep wound, no damage to any internal organs as far as he could tell, but he wasn’t going to remove it until there was someone to stitch him up and stop the bleeding.

He looked around for his fans. What was he going to tell Suki and the other warriors? There was no way they could go back to the palace now. Sokka wouldn’t let them anywhere near Zuko if there was a chance that more of the warriors were traitors, and neither would Suki. That would be an end to the entire mission as well. If there was a hit out on Sokka, he wouldn’t be allowed to continue travelling with them anyway.

He turned to make his way back to the camp, but froze as he heard a twig snap in the woods ahead.

_He had forgotten about the man Lanying had been speaking to._

Sokka didn’t have either of his fans anymore, so he drew his sword and held it at the ready. While he had had expectations about Lanying’s fighting style, this man was a complete unknown. Chances are he was trained, but in what, Sokka didn’t know. He steeled his muscles and made himself ready for anything.

Well, almost anything.

What he wasn’t prepared for was for a burst of fire to come shooting from between the trees, straight at Sokka. He ducked and avoided getting nailed in the head, but the back of his dress began to steam, and he was suddenly grateful for his unintentional bath in the river.

Sokka really regretted taking the darkest watch shift. He squinted his eyes at the trees, but he couldn’t be sure if the motion he could make out was a person or just the wind shifting the foliage. The almost full moon was hidden behind a thin layer of cloud, meaning that while it was dim, Sokka was still more exposed and visible while out from the cover of the trees.

Zig-zagging as much as possible, he made his way under the canopy, and hoped his eyes would adjust to the darkness quickly. He thought he could make out a figure in the shadows ahead of him, but it could have been a tree. He raised the tip of his sword and pointed it at the shape.

“Who are you?”

The only response he got was another burst of flames, but this time, he was prepared. He spun his sword, deflecting the fire, just like Zuko had taught him.

“Who are you with?”

The fire had definitely come from the figure Sokka had spotted, so when the next bout came, he dodged around it and stepped closer, before ducking behind a tree. He waited for a beat, listening for the man’s breathing, then stepped out right in front of him. The firebender clearly hadn’t been expecting an attack, and Sokka was able to get a hit on his upper thigh, making him stumble.

“What do you want?” Sokka hissed.

The man raised his head to look at him, but instead of pain, fear, or even anger, Sokka was alarmed to see that he was _laughing._

“What do I want?” His eyes flashed with fire, a window into the rage that fueled his attacks. “I want to see you _dead_.” On the last word, he thrust his hands out and a blast of fire exploded out from his fists and Sokka was thrown backwards, crashing hard against a tree. He shook his head to clear the spots out of his vision and scrambled to his feet, quickly.

“Why? What have I done to you? Please, we don’t have to fight!” He ducked as two more blasts were sent in his direction in quick succession. “Can’t we just talk about this?!”

“Oh, you want to _talk_ , do you?” The man threw off his heavy cloak and lowered his fists but Sokka watched them carefully, not lowering his sword. “Let’s talk about how your precious _Fire Lord-_ ” he spat the words as though they were poison in his mouth, “-has brought dishonour on not only the royal family, but the entire Fire Nation. Let’s talk about how he allows _scum_ like you into the palace and his council, how he allowed the airbending _abomination_ that is the _Avatar_ live! He needs to be put down! You all do!” With that, he leaped into a somersault, and tongues of fire lashed from his feet and spun towards Sokka. He deflected them as best he could, but he felt the heat sear across his face, and gulped. _Okay. No talking then._

Except that apparently, now that he had started, the firebender wanted to continue his rant. “You know, this wasn’t even the plan!” He interspersed his comments with small, concentrated blasts of fire that shot towards Sokka with such force that it was a struggle to keep from being pushed backwards. “Lanying wasn’t supposed to kill you until you got to Cranefish Town! We were going to stage a full assassination, really send a message to the Fire Lord and your whole band of idiots, and then, once his guard is down, murder the whole lot of them. Of course, I suppose we can still do that, but it won’t be as dramatic.” He pauses to flick a small piece of ash off the back of his hand, appearing almost bored. “I do love to be dramatic.”

Sokka couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Zuko is heavily protected.” He was tempted to laugh, but knew it would only come across as insane. “Your plan will never succeed.”

At this, the man let out a full blown chuckle. “You really think that his guards can’t be infiltrated? You’ve already seen how easily we fooled the Kyoshi warriors, and Lanying was hardly our only operative.” He looked towards her body, almost derisively. “Or even one of our best.” Sokka’s blood froze. How many more of Zuko’s staff were compromised? And if Lanying, who had almost succeeded in killing Sokka, was one of the lower tiers of warriors this mysterious organisation had working for them, then how much danger was Zuko in right now?

Sokka squared his jaw with determination. It was no longer his own life that was at stake now. He had to win this fight. With an enraged cry, he charged at the firebender.

Now that he had a greater motivation, Sokka threw all restraints out the window. He pressed his attacker mercilessly, deflecting bursts of flame and striking at him with his sword. He didn’t escape unscathed either. Sokka had already survived one fight, and come away stabbed, half drowned, and exhausted, but his second opponent had come into this fight fresh and unharmed. He limped heavily on the leg Sokka had landed a wound on, but this seemed to barely impede his firebending. Sokka sustained a nasty burn to the forearm, and the tip of his warrior’s wolftail was singed.

Several surrounding trees had smouldering scorch marks on them, some of the leaves on the ground were actually on fire, and the fire was spreading. Sokka knew that if he didn’t finish this fight within the next couple of minutes, he was going to die. He was injured, exhausted, and he hadn’t managed to gain a significant advantage over his opponent for long.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the man to have Sokka cornered. Pressed up against a tree, he had no choice but to drop his sword and face the firebender. He refused to look away, and forced himself to meet his opponent’s eye. The other man stepped closer to him, close enough that Sokka could feel the heat of his breath on his cheek, a victorious smirk twisting his lips.

And that was when Sokka struck.

Clutching Lanying’s knife tightly in his hand, Sokka thrust it as hard as he could manage up under the firebender’s ribs.

He watched with a surprising amount of grim delight as the other man’s eyes turned from gloating to horror as he realised what had happened.

“What-”

“That’s what you get for messing with me.” Sokka whispered harshly, withdrawing the blade. He stepped away as the man fell forwards, watching as he convulsed. He seemed to be heating up. Sokka realised what was about to happen moments before it did. Flames burst from the dying man’s throat, consuming his head, and from the wound in his chest, quickly spreading over his entire body. Sokka just barely managed to avoid the reach of the fire. He dropped the bloody knife as he watched the corpse burn. His mind, which had been racing throughout the duration of battle, was now blank. His only awareness was of the heat and light in front of him, and the rushing of the blood in his ears, which was matched by the sounds of the stream behind him.

Wait, the stream.

Suddenly urgent once again, Sokka grabbed the firebender’s cloak and ran to the stream, soaking it with water before returning to smother the flames. Once the body was completely doused, Sokka stared down at it, a plan formulating in his head.

He couldn’t return to the Kyoshi warriors right now, and he couldn’t go back to the palace. If he did, he could be putting his friends at risk, if he even made it that far. He didn’t know if any of the other warriors were double agents, and he knew for certain that there were other members of this mysterious organisation among Zuko’s palace staff and guards. No, Sokka couldn’t go back. Not just yet. He was going to have to make it appear as if the assassination had been successful.

The body of the firebender was burned completely beyond recognition. The man had stood a little shorter than Sokka, and was a little wider, but he was fairly sure that in death, they would be mostly indistinguishable. If only there were some way to ensure that the body was likely to be positively identified as Sokka’s…

He looked down at himself, thinking. He hadn’t brought many personal items with him on the mission, and he didn’t have anything that marked him out that he could easily donate to the corpse. His main identifying physical feature was his wolftail, and the man’s hair had been completely burned off.

Then, Sokka saw something glinting in the light thrown off by one of the piles of burning leaves. His sword.

Sokka’s heart clenched. He didn’t want to part with his sword. He had already lost it once before, and there was no guarantee that he would ever see it again. Besides, getting his sword back was one of the first things Zuko had done for him after the end of the war, and it marked the start of their closeness at the palace, and, if Sokka was being honest with himself, the first time he had realised that he might have feelings for his friend. He couldn’t just let it go…

But no. Thinking of Zuko reminded Sokka of why he was doing this. He had to protect the Fire Lord, but most importantly, he _had_ to protect the man he was in love with. He reached down and unbuckled his sword belt, then bent down to pick up the sword, sliding it reverently into its scabbard. Carefully, he wrapped the belt around the still-steaming waist of the dead firebender, and fastened it. He fetched the man’s cloak, intending to cast it into the stream, but a crackling sound stopped him. He located a pocket inside the cloak, and reached inside to retrieve a letter. He didn’t recognise the contents of the letter, as it seemed to be in some kind of code, but the address on the outside was perfectly clear. Sokka committed the address to memory, and shoved the letter into his pocket, just to be safe.

Then, he dragged the man’s corpse over beside Lanying’s body. He looked at them for a second, but something was nagging at the back of his mind.

If he left the bodies here, the Kyoshi warriors would find them as soon as they realised that the two of them were missing. Sokka had to delay their return to the palace for as long as possible. If he hid the bodies somewhere they wouldn’t be found for a while, there was a chance that the Kyoshi warriors would spend a few days searching for them before returning to the palace. That would buy Sokka some time to… what? To take down an entire underground revolutionary resistance?

He would think about that later, he decided. He lifted up Lanying first, her small frame providing little resistance. He waded into the stream, into the middle where the current was fastest, and set her down. He watched as the water carried her downstream until she was out of sight, then turned back to the burned body still on the bank.

The firebender was harder to lift, and Sokka ended up half-carrying, half-dragging the man’s body into the water, but the stream took him just as easily, taking Sokka’s beloved sword with it. Sokka watched until that, too, was gone, before returning to the land once again. He pulled the wet, smouldering dress back over his head, then looked around for his fans. He found one in the shallows of the stream, just barely submerged, the bronze gleaming in the light of the moon which was now peeking from behind her cloud cover. The second fan was a little more difficult to locate, but eventually Sokka found it, kicked underneath a small bush. It had been stepped on, and was a little bent, but it still folded up well enough for Sokka to put it into his pocket beside its twin. Then he looked back at the stream.

If he were to leave on foot, Suki and the other warriors would be able to track him, and they would doubtlessly catch up to him quickly, in his injured state. No, he would have to cover his trail well.

Fortunately, Sokka of the water tribe was a strong swimmer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My google search history while writing this: "does a half burned body float in water?"
> 
> The FBI agent assigned to me: o_o


	3. I Never Knew Daylight Could Be So Violent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka is missing. Suki and the other Kyoshi warriors try to find him and Liu. Zuko finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from [No Light, No Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGH-4jQZRcc) by Florence and the Machine
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=S0CCvVLqR6mNOSlHmXP5NQ)

Suki was woken by Ty Lee just before dawn. The normally cheerful girl’s face was drawn, a clear expression of worry, bordering on fear.

“What’s wrong?” Suki reached for her fans instinctively, stepping out of her tent.

“Liu and Sokka didn’t wake up me and Shan for our watch. We can’t find them anywhere.”

“Shit.” Suki was already applying her face paint, the automatic, well rehearsed motions soothing as she tried to organise her thoughts. “Wake the others.” Ty Lee nodded and went to wake the rest of the warriors. Suki walked briskly around the encampment, searching for something to give her an indication of which direction her friends had disappeared. There were two sets of footprints heading off into the forest, but they didn’t seem to have gone together, as they set off at slightly different angles. There were no returning prints.

She didn’t notice the rest of the warriors lining up behind her until Shan held up her face paint, offering it to Suki. She nodded and allowed the other warrior to quickly adorn her face with the same marks that the rest of them wore. “I think they went into the woods.”

“By the looks of these prints, they went willingly, there’s no sign of a struggle.” Ty Lee piped up. Suki nodded approvingly at her.

“Let’s split up, half of you follow these tracks, the rest of us will take these ones. Be prepared for anything.”

With nods of assent, the warriors filed away into the woods. The tracks disappeared once the leaves and foliage on the ground were thick enough, but soon enough they discovered the fairly obvious signs of a struggle. The scuff marks led to a riverbank, and several trees had large scorch marks, the kind that could only be created by a firebender. Patches of the ground had also clearly been on fire, and some areas were still smoking.

Suki gasped when they found a large pool of blood still trailing into the water.

“Do you think that’s-” one of the warriors behind her trailed off.

“There’s no way to know. It could be from the person they were fighting.” Her heart was in her mouth. Her best friend and her newest recruit had been attacked by a formidable enemy, probably more than one, judging by the fact that the battle had clearly taken a toll on the surroundings. At least one of the opponents had been a firebender, and based on the amount of blood on the stones, someone had died. Spirits, she hoped that it wasn’t one of her friends. And yet, there were no bodies anywhere to be found. Perhaps they had all survived, and had made their way elsewhere, either to continue the fight, or perhaps to reconvene?

But why hadn’t Sokka and Liu come back to the camp? If they were injured, they would need the support of the rest of the warriors.

“We need to find them, ASAP.” Suki called, and the rest of the warriors turned to look at her. “Chances are that they are alive, and I don’t think they can have gotten far.” The blood on the ground was still wet, and the smoking leaves indicated that the fight hadn’t ended too long ago. “Branch out in pairs. If you find anything, get help. We don’t know who attacked our friends, but they’re clearly dangerous and there could be more of them nearby.”

Suki grabbed Ty Lee, and the two of them set off across the river, deeper into the woods.

-

After an entire day of searching, the most that anyone had been able to find had been a thick cloak in a deep, earthy red tone, with signs of scorching that had washed up on the bank of the stream half a mile away from the battle scene. There was no insignia, nothing to identify it in any way, but Suki had her warriors take it back to their camp as evidence nonetheless.

“We need to widen the search.” Suki said, almost frantic as Ty Lee dragged her in the direction of their tents.

“Suki, you need to slow down. You haven’t eaten all day, you haven’t slept in almost twenty hours.”

“NO! I need to find Sokka and Liu.”

“It’s about to be night. You need to sleep!”

“They could be hurt out there. They could be-” Suki stopped, biting her lip. She couldn’t say it out loud.

“We don’t know who attacked them, whoever it is could come back tonight. We need to stay together.”

Suki sighed, letting her shoulders drop. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Ty Lee.”

Ty Lee gave her a reassuring smile, though the corners of her mouth were a little wobbly, and gave Suki’s shoulders a reassuring squeeze before stepping back.

“Let’s go back to camp, we can make a new plan in the morning.”

-

The next morning, Suki was woken by the dawn light shining through the thin canvas of her tent. She hadn’t slept much, having spent much of the night turning over in her mind what they had found the day before.

The fact that Sokka had been taken was in itself very telling. Of course it was possible that someone had decided to ambush the two warriors not knowing who they were, but far more likely was the possibility that Sokka had been targeted specifically. Although it hadn’t been announced that Sokka would be accompanying the Kyoshi warriors on their mission, it was well known that he and the Fire Lord were close. Perhaps Sokka had been kidnapped as a hostage to be used as leverage against Zuko. It would work. Suki knew that Zuko would give almost anything in exchange for Sokka’s safety. She could understand that.

Suki had ended her relationship with Sokka shortly after the end of the war, realising that her priority had to be with the Kyoshi warriors, and Sokka’s seemed to be with Zuko. They had remained close friends, though, and Suki knew that she would do almost anything to keep him safe. And she had failed.

“Warriors!” She called, and waited while the rest of the women exited their tents and looked at her expectantly, awaiting instruction. “It is likely that Sokka and Liu have been taken hostage by some unknown organisation. Without further information, we may not be able to find them on our own, so we must head back to the Fire Nation capital to inform the Fire Lord.”

The warriors nodded and began silently and efficiently putting down the tents. The air was tense. Everyone knew how important it was that they get back quickly, for the sake of the Fire Lord, and the rest of the world, but it was more than that too. All of the warriors knew Sokka well, he had become a part of their team at one point and had a place in all of their hearts, and Liu was their newest and youngest member; they needed to get both of them back safely.

While the journey to get to where they were at the moment had taken them six days, they made it back to the palace in four.

The guards outside the gates saw the Kyoshi warriors return at close to midnight, and let them into the palace through the front gates. Each of the women’s faces was grimly determined, even the usually cheerful Ty Lee.

“I need to see Zuko.” Suki demanded outside the entrance to the Fire Lord’s chambers.

The guard positioned outside the door barred her way. “I’m sorry, but the Fire Lord is resting at the moment. You will have to wait until the morning.”

“He won’t want to wait. He will want to hear what I have to say.”

“He is not taking an audience from anyone. The Fire Lord has had a long day, and expressly forbade me from allowing anyone to enter.”

“It’s about Ambassador Sokka.”

That made the guard hesitate. “What is it concerning? I can take a message and pass it on to the Fire Lord first thing in the morning.”

Suki planted both feet, folded her arms, and glowered at the man. “I need to speak to him in person. Now.”

“I-”

“Suki?” Zuko appeared at the door, his long hair falling loose around his shoulders and down his back, a thin, flowing robe wrapped around him.

“Zuko!” She held herself back from throwing herself at him. At the news she was about to give him, he might become… more combustible than usual.

“You’re back. Did you catch them? Why are you shouting outside my quarters in the middle of the night?”

“We didn’t catch them, but something else happened.”

Zuko’s eyes widened and he straightened his posture, seeming more awake and alert. “What is it?” He frowned and peered around Suki as though looking for something. “Where’s Sokka?”

Suki froze. “Sokka...” she trailed off.

Zuko took a step forward until he was right in front of her. It wasn’t often that Suki felt afraid of the Fire Lord, and it wasn’t fear she was feeling now, but as he towered over her she suddenly saw the echo of his father’s power in the set of his shoulders. “Where is he?”

“We don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Sokka was taken while he was on watch duty. We searched for him but there was no trace of him, Liu, or whoever took them.”

Zuko’s face went white, then red, then he just sagged. Suki braced herself to catch him if he should fall, but he just seemed to shrink.

“What do you know?”

“There was a fight. We found blood on the ground, and scorch marks. We think whoever took them must have been a firebender.”

“Okay, so it must be the New Ozai Society. We’ve dealt with them before. Did you discover whose blood you found?”

“No. There was a lot of it, if it all came from one person they would most likely be dead, but we found no body.”

“I see.” Zuko gathered his robe tighter around himself and strode off down the hall, motioning for Suki to follow him. She did, having to jog slightly to keep up with his longer strides, and the guard following along behind the two of them. Zuko led her to his private study, pulled out a sheaf of paper and a brush, and began writing. “Tell me exactly what you found. I need to write to Katara and Aang.”

Suki nodded and did as she was asked. Despite the fact that she had had less than 3 hours of sleep for any of the past five nights, and had travelled a very long distance, she was still buzzing with adrenaline, fuelled by a need to help Zuko to find Sokka.

As well as a letter to Katara and Aang, Zuko drafted letters to all the major heads of state, informing them of Sokka’s kidnapping, and requesting that they allocate teams to search for Sokka, and any revolutionaries that may have been complicit. He was just starting on an order for a specialist team to set out for the island where Sokka had been taken, when Suki gently took the brush from his hand, and he looked up to see the sun peeking out from between the branches of a tree outside.

“Zuko, stop. You need to sleep.”

Zuko snatched his hand away from Suki, angrily. “Sleep? I need to be here, I need to do something! I have to find him.”

“And you will, but it won’t happen any quicker if you write that letter now than if you go back to bed and sleep, and write it in a few hours.”

“Suki-”

Without thinking, she put a finger to Zuko’s lips, and the shock of it startled him into silence. “Go to bed, Zuko.”

With a sigh, he allowed her to pull him to his feet and walk him back to his room. Once she had the guard’s assurance that he would not allow the Fire Lord to step out of his room until a suitable hour, Suki finally returned to her own bed in the Kyoshi warriors’ quarters. She was asleep before she had even removed her makeup.

-

Over the next few days, Zuko’s duties as Fire Lord began to slip as he waited for news of Sokka. Katara and Aang had written back, saying that they were on their way to the Fire Lord’s palace, but they were coming back via the last place anyone had seen Sokka, to see if they could help with the search effort.

Zuko’s advisors and guards had forbidden him outright from going to assist his friends, and he wasn’t taking it well. He felt helpless and useless, stuck here in the palace under heavy guard while his best friend was somewhere unknown, and his other friends were doing their best to help find him. At least he still had Suki. She had wanted to go back out and help in the search, but Zuko had asked her to stay, under the guise of being his bodyguard, but they both knew that the other was in need of reassurance while the man they both considered their best friend was missing. Zuko knew he was being selfish, keeping Suki here when she could be useful out in the field, but with Sokka not available, Zuko just wanted a familiar face to commiserate with.

The Earth Kingdom rulers had mostly been cooperative, and had each put aside a small group of men to search for any information about Sokka’s whereabouts, or his captors, though none of them had turned up any results.

But something still didn’t sit right with Zuko.

If Sokka had been kidnapped, _why hadn’t Zuko received a ransom note?_

It was coming up to a week now since Suki and the Kyoshi warriors had returned without Sokka; that was ample time for his captors to send a message to the Fire Lord. (He supposed whoever it was could have been trying to get to the Southern Water Tribe for some reason, but as far as he knew, Hakoda hadn’t received a note either.) It was rather foolish of them not to, if you asked Zuko. Didn’t they know that he would do anything to get Sokka back safely? _Give_ anything?

No, he supposed they didn’t. How would they?

Zuko hadn’t heard anything from Katara and Aang since they had told him their plan to help with the search. If they had been going to fly straight to the palace, they would have arrived a couple of days ago. Zuko didn’t know what that meant for the search. How long did they plan to stay on the edge of the Fire Nation? Zuko wished there had been more clarification, because now he was worried about all three of them. What if something happened to Katara and Aang? What if the same organisation returned and captured them too? With that kind of leverage on Zuko, who knows what kind of demands they might make? Agni knew Zuko would be helpless against that.

As though summoned by his thoughts, he suddenly heard a familiar low bellow. Looking out of his office window, he saw Aang’s huge sky bison flying towards the palace. Heart racing in his chest, Zuko ran out of the office, calling for Suki to follow him. They ran down the palace steps into the garden just as Appa skidded to a halt, in an unusually rushed and frantic landing. Anxiously, Zuko stopped a few feet away from the bison’s head, and called up to his friends.

“Katara! Aang!”

Aang looked down at Zuko from his seat on Appa’s head, not moving, and an expression that Zuko had never seen before on his face. “Zuko...”

“What, what is it?” Zuko didn’t know what that look meant, what that tone meant.

“Zuko...” Aang said again, sounding almost broken, and that’s when Zuko noticed the tear tracks on his cheeks, the red rims around his eyes.

“No...” Zuko couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. He looked helplessly towards Katara, where she was still sitting in the saddle, her face paler than he had ever seen it. She just shook her head, wordlessly, and Zuko’s world erupted into flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 🙃


	4. Feels Like I’m Walking In Reverse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot it was time to post this and got so excited I accidentally closed what I was working on without saving :(
> 
> Chapter title is from [Fight The Future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItCg73pd9bo) by The Anix
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=G835l5zTQ2erIaLW9M4zrw)

Sokka pulled himself out of the river about four miles downstream from the scene of the fight. There was a small town nearby, and he started walking towards it, hoping to find the address on the letter he had found. Despite the warm air of the Fire Nation summer, he shivered as he climbed out of the water, and the weight of his sodden clothing seemed a heavier burden to carry than usual. He supposed he had lost some blood from his injuries, and his fight had tired him out, followed by a long swim in cold water. He looked around at the town that was just beginning to wake up in the glow of dawn.

Even though he was well used to life in the Fire Nation by now, Sokka was always surprised at its citizens’ propensity for waking up early. At first, he had thought it was a discipline thing, knowing that Zuko’s father had ruled his citizens with an iron grip of fear and fire, but as he got to know some of them better, he realised that it was more than that. Zuko always rose with the sun, even in the summer when the days were longer and the nights shorter, meaning that he was always crankier in the summer months, which Sokka found hilarious.

But right now, he wasn’t sure if it was a positive or a negative sign. He didn’t know how the town’s people would react to an unknown Kyoshi warrior crawling out of the stream, injured and soaking wet. At least they wouldn’t recognise him in his outfit, and his face was hidden by the face paint. _Thank the spirits for waterproof make-up!_ he thought to himself as he made his way to the gates to the village.

“Excuse me?” He called to a woman who was sitting on her doorstep, holding a bowl of rice. “Could you tell me where I am?”

“This is the village of Jinhua, on the eastern edge of the Fire Nation.” She frowned at him. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Sokka replied. “Do you know how I could get to Wengyuan?”

“It’s just on the other side of the hill.” She set down her rice and got to her feet. “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re bleeding.”

Sokka looked down at the knife wound in his side in surprise to see that there was indeed a growing red patch round it, despite having been in the water for so long.

“I’m all good, thanks!” he called over his shoulder as he ran back out of the village in the direction the woman had pointed out. The address from the letter he had found was in reach.

-

Even with the directions, it still took Sokka a little while to find the house. It wasn’t in the village itself, but instead a little way out in the open, exposed and separate, surrounded by barren earth. When he arrived at the door, Sokka paused. He didn’t actually have a plan. What was he going to do? Just knock and hope whoever answered the door wouldn’t kill him on sight? Who did the address even belong to? He didn’t think it could be civilians based on the code that the letter was written in, but he still didn’t want to just go in and immediately fight whoever was inside. Were they expecting the firebender back? Would they recognise Lanying? He should have really thought of a plan.

But oh well, it was too late to do anything else now. He couldn’t go back. He was here now. Sokka raised his fist and knocked three times on the door.

For a moment, nothing happened. He was just about to knock again, when a panel he hadn’t even seen slid open, and the top half of an unfamiliar face peered out at him.

“Password?”

Fuck. “Uhh-”

“Wait a minute. You’re not supposed to be here. Where’s Yakeru?”

“There was a change of plan. Yakeru didn’t make it.”

The panel slid closed and there was the muffled sound of two voices having an urgent discussion. Sokka waited patiently until finally, the door opened and he was ushered inside.

“Follow me.” A man and a woman set off down the hallway, motioning for Sokka to follow. They led him up a flight of stairs and into a large chamber in which about thirty people were sat, apparently in a meeting of some kind. They all silenced as Sokka entered the room, and every head turned to him. The woman who seemed to be in charge got to her feet and walked over to him. Sokka swallowed. If anyone was going to recognise him under the makeup, it would be the leader.

“What are you doing here?” She hissed.

“Yakeru sent me.” Sokka mentally thanked whichever spirit was watching over him that the door keeper had dropped the firebender’s name.

“I see. Where is he? He wasn’t supposed to bring you here.”

“He didn’t make it.” That gave her pause. “He showed me this address and told me to come here.”

“And what of your mission? Surely you haven’t abandoned it. This might have been the only chance we had to eliminate the Water Tribe lowlife.”

Sokka swallowed. “The ambassador is dead.”

She looked at him with shock for a moment, then, in a move that shocked him, turned quickly to the assembled group, raised his hand in her own, and exclaimed “The Fire Lord’s plaything is dead!” The cheers that filled the room made Sokka feel sick. “Tell us how it happened.”

The leader dragged Sokka to a seat and pushed him down, and he began to speak. Although he knew that they would want to hear of his own defeat _and murder_ , he couldn’t help but describe the valiant fight that “Sokka” had put up. He had to twist a few things, but it seemed that his tale was effective, as the entire room was silent as he spoke.

“Are you sure that he’s dead?” the leader asked when he was done.

“Pretty sure. I stabbed him pretty badly, and Yakeru lit him on fire, and then I threw him in the river. For him to survive that would be a spirits-damned miracle.”

There was a chuckle from somewhere down the table, and then someone started to clap. Quickly, the clapping spread, and the cheers started.

“To the new war!”

“Down with the Avatar!”

“Death to the Fire Lord!”

Their leader turned to him. “What’s your name? Yakeru always kept his conferences in the utmost secrecy.”

Sokka thought of Lanying, who he had known as Liu. Somehow, he didn’t feel right to take her name, either of them. He thought of Suki, but no, they would probably have heard of her. He thought of the Kyoshi Warriors, and yes, there was something there... “Call me Shikyo.”

“To Shikyo!”

“To Shikyo!” echoed back through the hall.

Shikyo looked back at the faces chanting her name and forced the bile that rose back down her throat. She had a job to do.

-

Katara hadn’t seen her brother in coming up to six months. She and Aang had been busy, travelling the world, meeting new people, seeing old friends, and it just hadn’t seemed that important to visit the Fire Nation. Of course they were going to go back at some point, but she knew that Aang found the rigid expectations of the court stifling, and would rather continue to run around the world, enjoying his last few months of being a teenager, his last opportunity to have the childhood he was denied at a younger age. And really, who was she to deny him that?

But when Zuko’s letter had reached them, dated two days ago, in shaky, panicked handwriting, informing them that Sokka was missing, she felt the inadvertent gulf between them like a knife in her chest.

She had to find Sokka.

They had made it to the island in Zuko’s letter in under a day, having been so close _so close_ to the Fire Nation, and found it full of Fire Nation soldiers searching the place. They showed Katara and Aang the site of the battle in which Sokka had been taken, but all that was left to see were the scorch marks on the trees.

“Is it possible that they might have taken a boat down the stream?” Katara asked the woman leading the search team.

Noriko shook her head remorsefully. “If they did, there’s no way to find out days after. We searched the docks at the mouth of the river when we got here, but nothing turned up, and no one had seen anything.”

“There may be no way for you to find out, but now you have a master waterbender on your team!” Aang piped up. “Oh, and the Avatar.” he added as an afterthought.

Katara met his eye and nodded. They had a plan, and this might just work.

Travelling with Toph both during and after the war had taught Aang more than just earthbending. Toph had taught Aang how to “see” using earthbending, picking up vibrations in the earth to locate objects through a seismic wave. After the war, Aang and Katara had discovered that this skill could also be applied to waterbending. By measuring the ripples that pushed back when the flow of water rebounded off of something, they were able to identify objects submerged underwater, in a way that Aang found easier to interpret even than by using Toph’s earthbending technique.

The two of them plunged their hands into the water and sent their awareness downstream, searching for any patterns on the stream bed consistent with a boat scraping on the shallow bottom.

After a few minutes of this, Noriko bent down to quietly ask if anything was showing up.

“Not here, but the stream is quite fast flowing, I can’t see very far.” Katara stood up, waterbending her hands dry, and Aang did the same, airbending the droplets away. “Can we go further downstream and try again?”

“Of course.” Noriko accompanied them downstream, asking interested questions about the technique they were using until Aang stopped, figuring they had about reached the edge of their previous reach.

Once again, the search showed no results, and the two waterbenders continued downstream to try again. This time, they didn’t quite find what they were looking for, but right at the edge of their ability to sense, there was…

“Katara, do you feel that?”

Katara felt sick. “It’s not a rock.”

“Come on, let’s go.” Aang helped her to her feet, and without waiting for Noriko, the two of them ran downstream to where they had felt… something.

Katara couldn’t look. Aang used waterbending to carefully lift the dead body out of the stream.

“It’s not him.” Katara almost sobbed in relief as she turned around to see who Aang had pulled from the water, but her blood ran cold when she recognised the signature outfit of the Kyoshi warriors.

Over a week spent underwater had bloated the body beyond recognition, but Katara knew that Liu had been the youngest of the Kyoshi warriors. She had only met the girl once, and she hadn’t seemed very approachable, but Katara still ached to see her dead, so without dignity.

Noriko made a soft noise beside her, and began calling for the rest of the team to come and take the body.

Aang gently laid Liu onto the bank, then turned to Katara with wide eyes. Aang had never been one to hide his emotions, and Katara could read him better than anyone else, but even she had never seen a look like this on his face before. It was a look of fear, desperation, sympathy, rage and determination, all rolled into one, and she recognised it because it was the same cocktail of feelings she had in her own chest. Without needing to communicate further, the two of them turned back to the river and sent out their senses once more.

It was Katara who felt it first, and she fell back with a cry.

The other body was a little further downstream. It had taken Katara a moment to spot it, since it – _he_ – was wedged under a weeping willow that overhung the river, blurring her vision of what was behind it. She took off downstream, stumbling as she ran, hearing Aang behind her but not really caring.

“Katara, I’ll do it, you don’t have to-”

“ _No_ , Aang, I have to do this. He’s my brother.” She made a lifting motion with her hand, and a wall of water rose from the stream, carrying _something_ with it.

For a moment, Katara thought it was a rotting log, and her heart sped up with desperate hope.

But then, she saw the sword tied around the middle of the mass she had lifted, and she cried out and dropped the water holding the corpse, dropped _Sokka_. Aang reached out and caught the wave, gently lowered the body to the ground, then turned to Katara, grief written across his face.

“Sokka!” She called, wanting her big brother so desperately that she couldn’t breathe, but not wanting to go near the _thing_ over there that wasn’t Sokka, just couldn’t be.

“Katara...” Aang held out his arms and she ran into them, letting him hold her tightly as though trying to fit all of her broken pieces back together, but he couldn't. She was shattered so completely, that she didn’t think she would ever be whole again.

“My lady...” Noriko stepped forward, beckoning two men behind her closer, stepping towards the body, they were going to _take him away_ -

“NO!” Katara screamed, the stream behind her rising into a wall thirty feet high. The three officers in front of them scrambled backwards, trying to get away from the waterbender driven mad by grief and rage.

“Hey, Katara, put the river down, it’s not their fault.”

“SOKKA IS GONE! SOKKA IS _DEAD_!” Katara screamed at Aang, who didn’t look away from her even as his own eyes brimmed with tears, who didn’t step back, who didn’t back down, instead reaching out a hand towards her to calm her down.

Katara looked from the cowering search team members to the wall of water behind her, then over at the blackened form of her brother, and the water came crashing down as Katara fell to her knees beside Sokka’s body, sobs spilling from her lips.

-

Aang quickly threw his arms out to stop the splash from washing the six of them into the water, then turned back to Noriko. “If it’s okay, we’d like to take Sokka back to the palace ourselves. It will be quicker this way, it won’t take as long to fly as it would by boat.”

She bowed her head in agreement. “Is there anything we can provide to make this easier for you, Avatar, Lady Katara?”

“Could we have something to wrap him in, please?”

“Of course.” Noriko sent someone to fetch a body bag, and Aang tried not to think about how they were prepared for this, they were planning for finding Sokka’s body here. Of course he knew that they had plans for finding him injured, finding him unharmed, finding him simply enjoying a cup of tea and a game of pai sho, but at this moment, the fact that they had body bags on hand felt ridiculously pessimistic.

Aang knelt by Katara, a hand on her back as two of Noriko’s men gently pulled the bag around Sokka’s charred body. He pulled Appa’s whistle out from under his robes and gave it a long blast. He didn’t want to have to carry his best friend’s body to where they had left the bison, and he wanted to get back to the palace as soon as possible. He didn’t want to leave Zuko waiting any longer than he needed to.

Appa landed in a clearing on the other side of the stream and lowed sadly, kneeling on the ground so that Aang could airbend Sokka up into the saddle with less difficulty. Aang helped Katara up into the saddle, then leaped onto Appa’s head, waving sadly at Noriko as he did so. She and all of her team who had gathered around saluted the Avatar on his sky bison as he took off towards the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kataang invented sonar


	5. Here We Are (Don’t Turn Away Now)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko finds out that Sokka is dead. Shikyo finds out about the organisation behind Ambassador Sokka's murder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from [Warriors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmI_Ndrxy14) by Imagine Dragons
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=G835l5zTQ2erIaLW9M4zrw)
> 
> **Content warning:** in this chapter, Zuko considers injuring himself, but he doesn't go through with it.

It was quiet in the palace. The normally bustling corridors were empty, only the occasional guard patrol or scurrying servant to disturb the silence. Even the spider-mice seemed to realise that the palace was no place to be right now. There was no life in the palace, how could there be? How could there be anything worth anything, now that Sokka was gone? Sokka was gone, and he wasn’t coming back. He was never coming back.

Zuko knelt on the ground, his head bowed. His body was stiff with the tension that he held in every muscle, though he couldn’t name what emotion he was feeling. Grief, rage, pain, these words were all too small to describe the depth of what he was experiencing. Too small to be worthy of the man that Sokka was. The man he had been.

When Aang had carefully lifted down the burnt out husk of the man Zuko lo- of Sokka, Zuko had pretty much lost it. He couldn’t remember what had happened, but afterwards he had seen the crisped trees, the scorch marks on the steps leading to the palace. He had been told that he had been covered in fire, that flames had exploded out from him, and it was only quick thinking on the part of the Avatar that had kept everyone around Zuko from being burned to death. Like Sokka, his traitorous mind filled in. His servants had feared that Zuko would burn himself to death in the middle of his inferno, but when he finally collapsed to the ground, unconscious, he had been completely unscathed.

Zuko hadn’t seen Katara, Aang, or Suki since he had woken up with the knowledge that Sokka was gone and he wasn’t coming back. That was due to his own express order that he be left alone, but his heart still ached in their absence.

He knew that he needed the company of people who shared his grief right now, but he couldn’t bring himself to face them. He had almost burned Katara, Aang and Appa, and he had completely lost control. What if he lost it again, and this time they didn’t react quickly enough. No, it was better for them all if he closed himself off completely. Just not better for Zuko.

He didn’t know how long he had sat in the throne room.

Zuko hated this place. Since his coronation, he hadn’t used the throne room for official business at all, preferring to conduct meetings in a separate chamber instead, where he could have an equal voice in the discussion rather than sit above his ministers behind a wall of fire. But now, he felt it was the best place for him to be.

The walls and floor were entirely stone, and the room had been built with firebending in mind. If Zuko were to combust again, there was nothing he could damage here. Nothing except himself that is...

Hating himself for it, he held out his fist and opened it, summoning a flame.

At least, he tried to.

Nothing happened, not even a spark.

Zuko tried again. Nothing.

“Zuko!” The door burst open, and Aang, Katara, Suki, and Toph ran through.

“Stay back!” He barked out, scrambling to his feet and striking a firebending stance.

The four of them skidded to a halt, and Aang held up his hands in surrender. “Zuko, please talk to us.”

“Keep away! I’m dangerous.”

Aang’s face crumpled. “You’re not dangerous, Zuko.”

“I am! I could’ve hurt you, I could still hurt you, hurt all of you.”

“You’re not dangerous. You’re hurting. Please let us help you.”

Zuko hesitated, looking into the faces of his friends, filled with such an open grief, and finally let his hands fall. That was all the rest of them needed before they were running towards him.

To Zuko’s surprise it was Katara who reached him first, not Aang who had been standing closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck with a firm grip, and would have knocked him over if it hadn’t been for Toph, who plastered herself to his back, and Suki and Aang who encircled the group, all of them clinging to one another for dear life until none of them were sure where their own body ended and everyone else’s began. Zuko didn’t realise that all of them were crying until they lowered themselves to the floor, still wrapped in one another, and he felt Suki’s heaving breath on his neck.

“I can’t lose another brother, Zuko, please don’t make me go through this for you as well.” Katara whispered in his ear.

Zuko was surprised by the vehemence in her voice. He considered the little group his family, more so than his father or his biological sister, but he hadn’t realised quite how strongly the sentiment was returned. He hugged Katara extra tight and with a voice hoarse from screaming, promised that he wouldn’t do that to her.

-

Shikyo was sitting in the medic’s room in the revolutionary base. She had had her wounds cleaned and stitched up by the medic, and her burns soothed with a cooling cream, but she had been told to stay there before leaving. The healer had left the room half an hour ago, and Shikyo hadn’t seen anyone else since. There were four beds in the room, but there were no other injured or sick people occupying them. She supposed that most of the operatives hadn’t been in combat for the organisation yet.

Huffing, she got to her feet. She had been provided with food after the meeting where she had told the group of the death of Ambassador Sokka, and had regained the strength she had lost earlier that day. If she was to be trapped in here, she may as well have a snoop around.

First, she rummaged through the cupboards, finding mostly medical supplies such as poultices and an impressive supply of burn cream. Then again, this was the Fire Nation, and she knew that they had at least some firebenders among their numbers. It was always best to be prepared if you knew there were going to be flames flying around.

Once her search through the cupboards had turned up nothing of note, Shikyo pulled open the drawers underneath. The first couple of drawers contained mostly rolls of bandages, but the third one crackled as she pulled it out, and she saw it was full of sheets of paper. Lists! Shikyo loved lists. As she scanned her eyes over it, she realised that down one half of the sheet was a list of names. It seemed to be an index of known medical conditions of all of the members of the organisation. Well, never let it be said that psychotic fascist Fire Nation supremacist revolutionary organisations don’t have a healthy sense of duty of care towards their members. Shikyo studied the list of names carefully, committing to memory as many as she could. When she heard footsteps in the hallways outside, she quickly stuffed the list back into the drawers and threw herself back onto the bed just as the medic shuffled back into the room.

“Sorry about that!” He held out a steaming cup, and Shikyo inhaled eagerly. “Took me an age to find the right leaves.”

“That’s alright.” Shikyo reached out and took the tea, feeling herself relax just at the scent of the hot air rising from it. She took a sip, despite the scalding temperature of it, and fought off a grimace. The tea was _fine_ , but she supposed she had been spoiled by Zu- _no, don’t even think it_. Shikyo knew that in order to fool the organisation she was attempting to infiltrate, she would have to do her best to believe the lies she was telling. She took another sip of the tea, and this time the hot liquid rolled down her throat with ease, and she smiled contentedly.

“Now, I’m going to need you to take off your face paint if you want me to look at that cut on your cheek.”

Shikyo frowned and raised a hand to her face. She hadn’t even noticed the injury. It felt as though she had been struck in the face with something, a rock perhaps, or a fist, and the skin had split.

“If it’s alright, I’d rather keep it on.”

“I understand your wish to keep your identity a secret, but you are safe here. We’re all united against a common enemy after all, and that makes us allies, friends even!”

“ _No_.” she growled.

“Alright!” The medic held up his hands in surrender. “Can I at least take a look at it without cleaning your face?”

“I’ve had worse. I’ll sort it out myself.”

“Alright. I’ll get you something to clean it with.” The man shuffled off and rummaged through the cupboards until he found what he was looking for. For a brief moment, a spike of panic shot through Shikyo, worried that she might have disturbed something in her own search, and he might realise that she had been snooping, but he turned round holding a sterile swab and an adhesive bandage, which she took with a nod of thanks.

Once she had finished her tea, Shikyo took the medical supplies to a mirror to treat her cut cheek, before using the opportunity to reapply and neaten up her makeup. She hadn’t had a decent mirror when she had applied it in the dark that morning before starting her watch shift, so the lines were blurred and uneven. Suki may have been able to apply flawless wings to her eyeliner in the dark, but she had many years more practise with it than Shikyo did. In the end, she did have to remove most of her makeup, painfully aware of the medic behind her, but he was focused on paperwork on his desk with his back to her, so she quickly removed the lot, before removing her makeup palette from her pocket. She carefully reapplied the paint, making sure to keep her lines sharp, and when she finally stepped back from the mirror to see the full effect, she barely recognised herself. Well, that was the point, she supposed, and brushed down her skirts, feeling satisfied.

Right. Next up: find out as much as possible about the upcoming mission and do her best to put a stop to it.

With a nod to the medic, Shikyo stepped out of the room, and looked up and down the hallway. The building that the organisation was using for their headquarters was deceptively large. There were a few open doors, and she peered into them as she passed. A few people inside nodded to her, respectful of the fearsome warrior who had defeated one of the heroes of the battle that ended the war. At last, she found the large meeting room. There were two people inside, having an urgent, whispered conversation. At her footsteps, they both stopped and spun to face her.

“Ah, Shikyo.” The leader of the group, whose name was Susumu, smiled at her. The smile would have been welcoming had it not been for the slightly predatory glint in her eyes. Shikyo knew that the woman saw her as a weapon, as a means to an end, and that end was the death of the Fire Lord. But despite her gut screaming at her to strike Susumu down, Shikyo plastered a smile on her face and stepped towards her. “What can we do for you?”

“I would like to offer my services to this organisation. I have already proved my worth and skill in disposing of the-” Shikyo forced the words, “-Water Tribe peasant scum. I would like to accompany you to complete our final objective.”

Susumu’s smile was now positively shark-like. “I see. Well, Shikyo, since you have trained with the Kyoshi warriors, you must know things about the Fire Lord and his friends that even our spies in the palace have been unable to discern. You shall join us tonight as we discuss our plans. You see, you rushed our plans by precipitating the attack days early, so we are having to make certain… adjustments. But if you can make yourself useful tonight, I will _consider_ allowing you to join the team for the final push.”

Shikyo placed her fist below her upright palm and bowed to Susumu before turning to leave. She would have to think up something to tell them tonight, something with enough truth to be believable, but enough lies to throw a spanner in the works, and hopefully put an end to their eventual plan to murder all of Sokka’s friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Susumu's name comes from Japanese 進 (susumu) meaning "advance, make progress"


	6. The Devil’s Got My Arms (And He Pulls Me Back Into The Night)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word of Sokka's murder spreads, and Katara and Suki vow revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from [Grip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMlCPQVbsFc) by Seeb and Bastille
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=S0CCvVLqR6mNOSlHmXP5NQ)

When Hakoda saw the messenger hawk wearing the Fire Lord’s personal emblem arriving, he called it over with a broad grin. Sokka had written to him just over a week ago, but ever since his son had told him of his feelings for the Fire Lord, Hakoda had been awaiting an announcement that the pair of them were finally together. His surprise when Sokka had confided in him had been mostly feigned. Hakoda had seen the way the two acted around each other, had seen the looks Sokka shot towards Zuko when he thought no one was looking, and had seen the looks that Zuko sent in return. If you asked Hakoda, Zuko was a sure bet. It just might take a little while, and a lot of talking. But he was sure that the pair would get there eventually.

If he was being honest, Hakoda had another, more personal reason for hoping that the pair would finally get over their barriers and get together. He had told himself that if Sokka could do it, if Sokka could persuade the man he had been in love with for years that they should be together, then maybe his father could confess his own feelings to Bato. Sokka had told him that he was convinced that Bato would return his feelings, and given Hakoda his blessing to find a new relationship after Kya. But Hakoda hadn’t managed to pluck up the courage to speak to him yet.

As soon as the hawk landed on his shoulder, Hakoda tore the letter out from the canister strapped to the bird’s back and unrolled it eagerly, eyes flitting across the page, hoping to find the news that he was waiting for.

He did not.

Hakoda’s eyebrows drew together as he read and re-read the letter. The characters were written in another familiar hand, his daughter’s, not his son’s, and he could read and understand them all, but they made no sense, not in this order. Hakoda reached into the canister, feeling for another letter, something from Sokka to let him know that Katara was just joking around, but it wasn’t Katara who was the jokester. It was Sokka through and through. But Sokka’s jokes had never been this serious, he wouldn’t play a trick like this on Hakoda, that was a step too far, it was cruel, and Hakoda would be having words with his son as soon as he saw him again –

“Hakoda?” Bato’s voice called out from behind him, and his best friend clapped a friendly, mittened hand on Hakoda’s shoulder. “What’s the word from the Fire palace? How’s Sokka? Little scamp been getting himself into trouble again?” A deep, booming chuckle echoed through Bato’s chest as he looked sideways at Hakoda, before his face dropped. “What is it, ‘Koda? What’s wrong?”

“Sokka’s-” Hakoda couldn’t say it. His throat tightened around the words and he thought he might choke.

“Sokka’s what? Let me see that.” Hakoda wordlessly handed the letter over to Bato, who scanned it quickly, a furrow growing between his eyebrows just visible over the top of the paper, before he rolled it back up and looked over at Hakoda, his adam’s apple bobbing as his throat worked. “Hakoda...”

The chief shook his head mutely, knowing that if he opened his mouth to speak the only sound that would come out would be an animal howl.

Bato knew that later would come talking, later would come plans, travelling to the Fire Nation to collect _the body_ of the boy he had come to think of as his own son, but right now, he just wrapped his arms tightly around the shoulders of the grieving father, and allowed their tears to mingle as they cried together.

-

The day after Katara and Aang brought Sokka’s body back to the palace, Zuko began to make plans. He knew that Sokka would want to be buried in his tribe’s traditional way, but he had also had a home in the Fire Nation, and Zuko wanted to have a Fire Nation memorial for him as well. Zuko wanted to be able to mourn Sokka in his own way, and he knew that Sokka wouldn’t have begrudged him this. Katara had written to her father already, and he was likely on his way to pick up the body and take him home for a Water Tribe send-off. He would arrive in a few days. Zuko wanted Hakoda to be at the memorial, he wanted as many people as possible to be able to pay their respects to the young ambassador. Sokka had touched the hearts of so many, he was so easy to love, as Zuko knew only too well, and people from every nation would want to show that.

-

Suki held up the small scrap of paper that Zuko had received before she and the Kyoshi warriors had set off on the mission that had cost Sokka his life. It was burned so that most of the words were illegible, but Suki knew what it had contained. It wasn’t the words themselves that she was considering though, it was their implications. This hadn’t been a threat meant to scare the Fire Lord, nor had it been intended as a warning. No, this had been carefully crafted to incite a reaction. Whoever had sent this note had intended to draw Zuko’s forces out of the palace, to draw the Kyoshi warriors away. But the eventual attack hadn’t been on the palace, no, the target of this meditated attack had been with the warriors, it had been one of the party seeking revenge, and it had been successful, and one of their own had been taken down along with Sokka. Somehow, whoever this was knew that Sokka would accompany the Kyoshi warriors to seek justice. How could they have possibly known?

Although it wasn’t a secret that Sokka had trained with the all female band before, the fact that he still sometimes joined them on missions, or even just as part of Zuko’s guard when he was bored, wasn’t exactly common knowledge. And how they could have known that Sokka would take it as a personal duty to go on this mission, Suki didn’t know. And that troubled her. Someone was leaking sensitive information from inside the palace to this unknown group, who were planning attacks against a royal ambassador, against _Suki’s best friends_. And that just wouldn’t fly.

Suki was going to find out who had killed Sokka and Liu as soon as possible, before they succeeded in getting rid of any more of the people she loved.

Once she had made up her mind, it was a simple enough thing to gather her weapons and prepare herself to leave. She glanced at her Kyoshi uniform, but decided against wearing it. It was too recognisable, and besides, she wasn’t going on this mission as a Kyoshi warrior, she was going as Suki. These people had made it personal, and she was going to keep it that way. She picked up her katanas instead of her fans. This was a quest for revenge, not defence, so she may as well switch up her fighting style as well as her outfit. Finally, dressed in all black for stealth, she crept out of the palace and down to the docks.

Except that as she was making her way past the stables, she saw a similarly garbed figure running towards the largest stable, where Appa slept. Immediately on her guard, Suki crept towards the stable, ready to fight to defend the giant bison if necessary. As she peered round the door, she saw…

“Katara?”

The figure in black jumped and spun around, water flying from a flask at her belt and freezing into points aimed directly at Suki. “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Suki. What are you doing?”

The water turned back to liquid and flowed back into the flask with a wave of Katara’s hand. The other woman looked slightly sheepish and didn’t answer.

“Are you going after Sokka’s killer?”

Katara raised her chin in defiance. “So what if I am? I know you’re going to tell me that I shouldn’t, or that I should wait, but I can’t wait! They’re out there right now, and if we wait they might never get what’s coming to them! You can’t make me stay, so you might as well get out of my way.”

Suki smiled, a small, sad, broken thing, but a smile nonetheless. “Actually, I was about to do the same thing myself.”

“You- what? But I thought you were supposed to be all about defence and only attacking when absolutely necessary.”

“As the founder of my order once said: _only justice can bring peace_. And I, personally, will never be at peace until Sokka’s murderers are brought to justice.”

Katara seemed to settle somewhat at that. “How are you planning to get there?”

“I was going to steal a boat.”

“Come with me. We’ll take Appa, it will be much quicker.”

Suki took Katara’s offered hand, and the two women set off towards the edge of the Fire Nation, as the waning moon shone her bright rays down ahead of them, lighting a path for them to follow.

-

Shikyo had managed to put faces to about half of the names she had found on the list in the medical office. She had originally assumed that the list was a complete list of all of the members of the organisation, but was disheartened to realise that it wasn’t even a list of all the people who were currently at headquarters. There were many more in the organisation, and a large number of them seemed to be undercover operatives masquerading as palace staff, even the guards who were close to Zuko at all times. This was more worrying than Shikyo had first thought. Of course it had been a little too optimistic to assume that she would be able to infiltrate them so far as to disrupt their plans entirely. Still, the false information she had presented at the meeting on the first night had been well received, and Susumu seemed to approve of her, so she hadn’t given up all hope.

She had been with the nameless organisation for almost a week when a young man burst into the meeting room gasping with news that the Avatar’s sky bison had been spotted over the forest. Susumu had called everyone to be prepared for an attack, and Shikyo had fought down the urge to race to the window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the giant creature. Sokka would have wanted to see his sister and friend so desperately, but Shikyo would have to be indifferent.

In the end, Appa was seen taking off again a few hours later, and the Avatar and the waterbender didn’t stay on the island.

“The ambassador’s body has been found, and news of his death will send the Fire Lord into an emotional spiral. The countdown to our final assault has now begun.”

Shikyo couldn’t keep her mouth closed. “What do you mean, an emotional spiral?”

Susumu glanced at her. “His attachment to the Water Tribe brat is well known. With any luck, this will completely unhinge him and make our job that much easier.”

“I think you’re overestimating his feelings for the ambassador. I really don’t think-”

“Our spies in the palace tell us that the two of them had some kind of romantic relationship going on, or at the very least sexual. Such things are accepted in the Water Tribes, and that’s just another reason why Ambassador Sokka was our first target. He has perverted the very order of the world, corrupted the Fire Lord irreparably, and it is going to be his downfall.”

With that, Susumu stalked away, leaving Shikyo – Sokka – to deal with all of that. Sokka’s head was reeling. Yes, he knew that Zuko probably still had feelings for him, feelings that he was repressing, but Zuko would never let his feelings cloud his judgement. He had proved that time and time again, against Sokka’s own attempts to kiss the man. No, Zuko was resilient. Sure, he would be sad about Sokka’s supposed death, but he would get over it. This attempt wouldn’t succeed, and if it got close, well, Shikyo was there to make sure that it failed.

News that Ambassador Sokka was dead spread quickly through the Fire Nation. When it reached their hideout, Susumu declared that it was time for them to move to the next phase of their plan. They were moving their base of operations to the capital city, ready for the final strike. Shikyo offered to help with moving their possessions to the ship for transport and was met with a strange look. “We’re not taking everything with us. This is the end of the mission. Succeed or fail, we won’t be needing this place anymore, or any of the information.”

Shikyo swallowed. “Okay. How can I help?”

“Spread the word. We leave tonight.”

Once the building was emptied of people, Susumu gave the order to the handful of firebenders among their number to set it all on fire. Blasts of flame shot through the first storey windows, catching fire to everything inside within seconds. For a while, the entire group stood around the blaze, looking into the flames almost meditatively. But eventually, Susumu called for their attention, and they all turned towards the docks, where a couple of small ships sat waiting to carry them to Capital City, and to Zuko.

-

When Katara and Suki flew over the island in the first rays of the morning sunlight, the first thing they saw was a plume of smoke rising from the other side of the forest where Sokka had been killed. Not having a better idea of where to start, Katara landed Appa beside the blazing building. Flames licked out of every window, but there were no people around it. Hoping that there had been no one inside either, Katara summoned a huge ball of water from the sea behind her and dumped it over the building. The fire was doused almost immediately, and the water ran off back towards the sea, carrying ash, pieces of burnt wood, and belongings from inside.

Katara stepped inside hesitantly, watching out for any damaged timbers that might give way and crush her. All of the rooms on the first floor were completely gutted, but there didn’t seem to be any burned bodies _spirits she didn’t think she would survive if there were-_

As she stepped onto the landing of the second floor, she suddenly heard Suki’s shout from outside and raced back to find out what was wrong. She expected to find her friend crouching over a survivor, or perhaps fighting with someone hostile, but what she found instead was almost worse.

Aang was standing in front of Suki, his glider clutched in his hand, wings still extended, and a look of absolute fury on his face.

“Aang? What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

Katara tried not to feel guilty. “You know why I’m here. Why both of us are.”

She expected Aang to continue to argue with her, to try to convince her to come back, to change her mind, but to her surprise, his face fell and he seemed to sag, leaning on his glider for support. “I do know. And I understand. I guess what I’m really asking is why did you come without me?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to. And this is something I _need_ to do.”

“I understand. I just wish you’d told me. I want to help. I miss him too.”

“Of course. I’m sorry, Aang.”

“It’s okay. So where do we start?”

“How about here?” Suki was holding up a scrap of paper, soggy from the sea water, and the edges burned by the fire, but a few characters were still readable.

“What does it say?” Katara asked, craning her head to read it.

Suki squinted at it, trying to make out the smudged and scorched writing.

“Doesn’t that say ‘Kyoshi’?” Katara asked, pointing at two familiar characters.

“No, they’re the wrong way round.” But Suki was frowning at the rest of the sentence that she could make out. “This is about Sokka.”

“What?!” Both Katara and Aang leaned closer to the page, obscuring it from Suki’s sight. She scowled and tugged it away, bending her own head closer as she deciphered the rest of the information.

“I can’t be sure, but I think this is about the person who killed him.” Katara felt like she was going to be sick.

“We have to see if there’s any more information inside!”

But Suki was shaking her head, her face going very pale. “I think you were right before, Katara.”

“Right about what?”

“I think this does say Kyoshi, but it’s just been coded weirdly. I think whoever killed Sokka was masquerading as one of my warriors.”

Katara and Aang stared at her for a beat in shock. Aang was the first to break out of his stupor. “We have to go back. We have to get to Zuko.” The two women nodded quickly and without another word the three of them were scrambling onto Appa’s back and flying back the way they came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is perhaps most heavily influenced by [Protective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24024061) by crosspin. Katara and Suki (rather than Zuko) going to avenge Sokka, and Aang showing up to be like, _wtf r u guys doing having adventures without me????_ Absolutely iconic.


	7. Everybody Knows I’m Dead (Reaper, Come For Me)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The memorial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from [Out Of My Mind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNJ_H1tgVLg) by King No One
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=G835l5zTQ2erIaLW9M4zrw)
> 
> Sorry this is a bit late! Hope you enjoy ^^

Shikyo had been quiet and sullen on the trip to the Fire Nation capital. She had gained a place on the final strike team after days of proving her usefulness and knowledge of the subjects and location of the planned assassination, so Susumu had taken her into her confidence for the duration of the boat ride, explaining details that Shikyo was filing away without really paying attention.

This was it. If Sokka failed at any point, or if anyone realised Shikyo’s true identity, all of Sokka’s friends and family would die. He had known that already, but now that the group were on the way to the city, the truth was finally beginning to register. Zuko was holding a vigil for Sokka the next night, and Katara, Aang, Toph, Suki, Sokka’s dad, and many of his friends from all over the world would be there. It was on Sokka to keep them all safe.

Sokka knew that there was a strong chance that he wouldn’t survive this. If Shikyo was identified as a member of the assassination party, hundreds of guards and warriors would kill her on sight, not to mention the gathering of the world’s most powerful benders. On the other hand, if someone recognised Sokka and uncovered his identity to the people he was with, they would turn on him instantly. Then again, it was literally his own funeral, he supposed people wouldn’t really be expecting to see him there, alive and unharmed. Still, Sokka was willing to lay down his life if necessary to protect the people he cared about.

The two boats didn’t dock in the city harbour. Shikyo supposed that this was due to the additional checks that would be going on at the official port. As they passed the harbour, she saw more than the usual number of ships moored, and more than the usual proportion of foreign boats, from both the Northern and Southern Water Tribes and from all over the Earth Kingdom. Shikyo swallowed. Ambassador Sokka’s memorial seemed to be larger and more populated than she had expected. All the more motivation to not fail.

The two boats make landfall on a rocky beach surrounded by cliffs, and everyone begins to climb. Shikyo reaches the top of the cliffs just behind Susumu, and for a wild moment considers pushing the woman back down. But then the rest of the strike team clambers over the top, and Shikyo turns to fall in line as they are led through a hidden passageway into the heart of the city, and wonders desperately whether she did the right thing.

~

Suki hadn’t wanted Zuko to leave the palace, but Zuko had managed to convince some of his guards to accompany him, and Suki had begrudgingly relented, deciding that if he was going to be among his people, then she would be at his side along with more guards than he would have usually had beside him. She was going to make damn sure that he was safe.

As sunset approached, Zuko stepped out of the palace gates, accompanied by Katara, Aang, Toph, Hakoda, Bato, Suki, Ty Lee, Mai, so many people with whom he could share his grief. Their habitual rainbow of coloured clothes had been replaced by a uniform white, and Zuko thought it might have felt nice, having a visual representation that they _belonged_ as a group, if it hadn’t been for the fact that the reason for their clothing was that they were missing the very person who tied them all together.

Sokka had been more than just a non-bending member of their group. He had kept them going through their struggles, and after the end of the war he had been the glue that kept them from falling apart. His relationship to every one of them was different, and it made the hole that he left behind impossible to fill or even to patch. As Zuko looked over to his friends, he felt almost impossibly distant from them.

But then Katara stepped closer to him and slipped her hand into his. He squeezed it comfortingly, and together, they stepped forward, into the crowds that had gathered in the centre of the city, mourning the loss of the best man Zuko had ever known.

They were singing softly, the melody light and full of a pain that didn’t need words to be expressed. There was no distinct tune, and while some people sang with words, the gently shifting harmonies spoke on their own. It was heartbreakingly beautiful.

Everyone was holding a flame. The firebenders among them held it cupped between their palms, carefully controlled and warmly dancing, and the non-benders held candles and lanterns with smaller flames flickering at the slightest gust of wind. The square around the central fountain glowed with the light, and the water in the centre sparkled with it.

Beside him, Zuko saw Aang silently summon a flame of his own, the bright colours of dragon fire barely visible as the young man fed the fire with the strength of his emotion. Zuko held out his own hand, palm up, and tried hard, but the flame wouldn’t come. A burst of sparks and a puff of smoke. He hadn’t really expected it to work, he hadn’t been able to make fire since his outburst after Aang and Katara had brought back Sokka’s body. Yet here he stood before his people, their Fire Lord, unable to produce even the smallest flame. He knew that he should have been ashamed, but all he felt was hurt, and here, before the fountain full of lights, Zuko sank to his knees, letting the weight of his grief push him down as he lifted his voice to join his people in their sorrow.

~

Shikyo followed close behind the three people who were supposed to be targeting Toph. She had initially been assigned to the group tailing Hakoda, but right now, she had a plan. She knew that the earthbender wouldn’t have been listening out for that familiar heartbeat, but if she could just get close enough, she could perhaps pass a message and Toph would be able to get everyone to safety.

The entire organisation was approaching the centre of the city, where the vigil was taking place. They were currently navigating the backstreets in order to enter through the crowd without being noticed. Shikyo reached out and quickly clasped a hand over the mouth of the assassin in front of her. They struggled to get free, but Shikyo was stronger, and pushed them to the ground before pressing her thumb into the pressure point on their neck, knocking them unconscious. She undid their belt and quickly refastened it, securing their arms to their waist. Once she was sure that they wouldn’t be able to escape, she hurried after the other two assassins. She disabled one in much the same way as the first, but by the time she looked up, the third had vanished into the crowd.

Shikyo looked around in surprise and panic. Why were there so many people? Sokka knew that he had gotten on well with most of the Fire Nation citizens he had met, but they spilled out from the courtyard and well into the streets leading off it, holding flames and candles.

And they were _singing._

Everyone was wearing white. Everyone was singing. Everyone was mourning. The sound that the Fire Nation sent upwards was haunting, and Sokka felt his heart twist with empathy for their loss, despite knowing that they were mourning one who was not dead. At least, not yet.

Shikyo shook her head and focused. She couldn’t afford to dwell on this right now. Later, if she survived this, if all her friends survived this, she would allow herself to consider what Sokka’s supposed death had done to the Fire Nation, to the people of the world. For now, she had revolutionaries to find and stop, a mass assassination to prevent.

Ty Lee had taught Sokka a few things while sparring together, and Shikyo drew on this, using well placed jabs of her fingers to disarm the assassins creeping towards her friends. From what she remembered of the assignments, about half of the team members were down before Shikyo could even see the targets approaching the fountain in the centre of the square.

Sokka’s breath caught as his eyes lit on Zuko. His hair was down, even the traditional topknot worn by every member of the Fire Nation was gone, his jet black hair cascading down his shoulders, contrasting with the pure, shining white of his robes. The lights held by the hundreds of people surrounding him lit him up and he shone, radiant. Sokka couldn’t help but be reminded of Yue, how she had appeared after she had gone to join the moon spirit, glowing with light. The sight took Sokka’s breath away.

As he watched, Sokka’s friends and family arranged themselves around the fountain, and he took in the sight of all of them hungrily. They were so close now. He watched as Aang produced a flame in his hands, and wordlessly lit candles that Katara, Toph and Suki were holding. He saw his father standing beside Bato, the two of them holding lanterns decorated with Water Tribe symbols that seemed to move as the light behind them flickered.

He saw Zuko raise his palm to produce fire. Sokka suppressed a gasp as the Fire Lord’s hand let off a few sparks, but the flame that normally burned within his best friend’s soul seemed to have died. Sokka watched helplessly as Zuko fell to his knees.

The Fire Lord’s grief was harrowing to witness, but his voice was rapturous as he raised it in song, carrying over the blended voices of five hundred others. Sokka couldn’t take his eyes away from the sight, everything else forgotten as he watched Zuko give himself entirely to his pain.

And that was why Shikyo didn’t see the attack coming until it was too late.

~

Hakoda stood silent and stiff, tears running down his face, surrounded by people he had once considered the enemy, who were singing a song of pain in mourning for his son. He wanted to join them, to lift his voice and sing, to help guide his son’s spirit, but he knew that if he opened his mouth, the sound that would come out would be harsh sobs, not beautiful song.

He felt Bato’s presence at his side, and then a warm, strong hand was wrapped around his own and squeezing tightly, and knew that if he looked over to the other man, he would see the mirror of the tear tracks on his own face. Wordlessly, he turned his face into the taller man’s shoulder and allowed himself to be held.

As he turned, his eyes caught on movement in the crowd. Blinking his eyes to clear them of tears, he searched again but couldn’t spot the flash of colour he had seen. Katara had told him that she and Suki had found a suggestion that Sokka had been murdered by someone dressed as a Kyoshi warrior, but all the Kyoshi warriors were currently wearing white out of respect. So why was there someone in their traditional outfit at the vigil for Hakoda’s son?

~

Katara saw her father move, then saw him stiffen as his eyes roamed a spot in the crowd. She turned her head instinctively, looking for what he had spotted. She saw a flash of motion, there was someone weaving their way through the crowd, someone not wearing the traditional white mourning clothes. She nudged Aang, who looked over, the flame in his hand fluttering. Suki’s hands were already hovering over her fans, scanning the crowd for threats, ready to attack or defend. Toph’s face had lost its expression of grief and was hardened with determination as she planted her feet firmly on the ground. Without needing to communicate, the four of them moved closer to surround Zuko, indicating to the guards that there might be a threat to the Fire Lord.

What none of them expected was for the guards to attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... I'm sorry?


	8. No Dawn, No Day (I’m Always In This Twilight)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens after the guards attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it, folks!
> 
> Chapter title is from [Cosmic Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIeUlvHAiM) by Florence And The Machine
> 
> [Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0pODJSce3sWyqA4CZ0j3Za?si=G835l5zTQ2erIaLW9M4zrw)

Not all of them would have survived if it hadn’t been for Toph. The guards standing nearest to her lunged towards Zuko, but before their blades could reach him, they bent back on themselves and she slid out from between them, punching spears of rock up from the ground to knock them out. Two more of their helmets crumpled in on themselves, and they collapsed.

Katara raised the water from the fountain, summoning it to surround her in a swirling tornado of water. Unsure of who she was targeting, the water splashed at the guards approaching them, keeping everyone back.

And then a bolt of lightning directed towards the Fire Lord hit the water and Katara dropped it with a cry, electricity crackling as it splashed against the ground, and chaos erupted.

The peaceful vigil was shattered. Candles and bended flames were extinguished, and the beautiful song that had filled the air was replaced with screams. The civilians who had filled the square were running, dispersing into the streets to get away from the battle that was just beginning. And from all around, people were approaching, and someone unseen could generate lightning.

Zuko was pulled roughly to his feet before he had even fully registered what was happening, and then he was running, and Suki was holding his arm and dragging him along, away from the fight, away from his friends, and he wanted to go back, but she wasn’t _listening_ , he had to go and help! Suki pulled him through the open gates of the palace, up through the gardens, towards the front of the house, and then something struck her in the back of the head and she fell with a cut-off exclamation, and Zuko turned.

~

Shikyo was moving towards the fight. Gone was the need for subtlety as she intercepted two assassins who were preparing to firebend, taking them by surprise as she took them down from behind before they could attack the group around the fountain. She spotted a non-bender approaching the fight, but before they could raise their weapon, Shikyo cut their hamstrings and they fell with a cry.

Whirling, Shikyo saw Suki leading Zuko by the arm towards the palace, with at least four assassins following them, led by Susumu. Her heart in her mouth, Shikyo sprinted across the clearing square and slipped through the gates just before they closed. Ahead of her, Suki and Zuko were almost at the entrance to the palace when the woman in front of Shikyo threw something and hit Suki. For her pains, she got her own blow to the head as Shikyo ran past her, desperate to catch up to the rest. Both of her fans out and prepared, she bowled past the next man, knocking his sword from his hand and swiping a deep cut across his arm, severing the tendon. The next assassin was attempting to run around Zuko and cut off his entrance to the palace, but Shikyo got to her first, throwing herself into a flying leap, feet first, striking the woman in the leg and shattering her knee.

When Shikyo had picked herself up, Susumu had reached Zuko, and was circling him with a predatory grin on her face. He was standing over Suki protectively, his arms raised in a firebending stance, his loose hair flying around his face making him look crazed and dangerous, but Susumu was laughing now.

“Go on, _Fire Lord_ ,” she spat, “firebend at me. I saw your pathetic attempt out there. I know you can’t.”

Zuko punched his fist out towards her, but the most that he could produce was a tiny bud of flame which died almost as soon as it came to life. She tipped her head back and laughed. “Oh, I am going to have fun with this.” And both of her hands erupted with flames.

Shikyo stepped out from the shadows behind Zuko, directly into Susumu’s line of sight, and her eyes widened with shock. “Shikyo!” Then the grin was back, but somehow worse than before. “Well, little Fire Lord, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

The Fire Lord spun around, and Sokka met Zuko’s eyes for the first time in what felt like forever, and found that he didn’t recognise the emotion held within them. There was fear, grief, sorrow, confusion, desperation, then there was recognition, and Sokka’s heart raced. Then, there was only lightning.

~

Katara had told Zuko that Sokka had most likely been killed by a Kyoshi warrior, but Zuko hadn’t really believed it possible until now. Not until he had looked behind him to see someone wearing the familiar dress, the familiar makeup, and clutching the fans like she knew what to do with them, but who was so clearly not one of the warriors who Zuko saw every day in the palace. Zuko screamed and let his rage take over his body.

~

Sokka managed to leap out of the way of the first bolt of lightning, throwing his body to the side and rolling to his feet.

Zuko could generate lightning?

_Since when could Zuko generate lightning?_

Behind Zuko, Susumu threw a blast of fire at his back, but it rolled over him like water off a turtleduck’s shell, not even singeing him.

“I see you already know who killed your precious Water Tribe bitch.” She sneered. Zuko’s face twisted in an anguished howl, and he threw both arms out, towards both Sokka and Susumu, fire pouring from both palms. His usually orange flames now burned white hot, with a hint of blue at their core. Sokka thought of how Azula’s blue fire had burned the hottest as her rage and madness overcame her. He only just managed to raise his fans in time to deflect the flames, and then almost dropped them as the metal heated up in a flash.

“ _ZUKO_!” He called, desperately, but the other man seemed too lost in his rage and grief to hear him, or perhaps it was simply that the sound was inaudible over the roaring panic in Sokka’s ears. He dodged Zuko’s next lash of fire, running around him to try to escape his eyes that were filled with such pain and hatred that Sokka thought he might die from the glare alone.

“That’s right! We were able to take him down easily. Tell him, Shikyo, tell him how you stabbed the bastard through the heart. Tell him how he cried, how he _begged_ for his life.”

Sokka couldn’t speak. He couldn’t open his mouth, couldn’t look away from the man he loved, and who was now trying to kill him.

Zuko _screamed_ , a sound so full of pain that Sokka thought that his very lungs would surely follow, and then flames burst from his mouth. Susumu deflected them with a wave of her hands, and Sokka thought for a moment how ironic it was that the woman was defending him from the man he himself was trying to defend against her.

Zuko sent two more bursts of fire towards the two of them, each one pushing Susumu back with the force of it. She responded with a blast of her own, sweat beginning to bead on her brow. Sokka thought she hadn’t anticipated how formidable an opponent Zuko would be. Perhaps some people falsely thought that a few years in the palace with guards to protect him would have softened Zuko, but they were dead wrong. Sokka knew this, because he was often Zuko’s sparring partner of choice for swordbending matches, as he liked to call them (and as Zuko did not), and Zuko had ensured that Sokka was well able to defend himself from fire as well. He had not prepared him for something on this scale though.

What Sokka was seeing was Zuko fighting with no regard for his own safety, a firebender unhinged. He was letting off spurts of fire in all directions, although Suki was unburned where she lay on the ground. Some of the trees in the palace grounds were now on fire, and the turtleducks had all fled the pond.

Susumu cried out as one of Zuko’s blasts got past her guard, and Sokka ducked as the partially deflected fireball passed where his face had been moments before. The woman’s sleeve was on fire, but she didn’t seem to care enough to extinguish it. The confident smirk that she had worn before while taunting Zuko had gone, and was replaced with a look of focused determination.

Zuko spun around, the light of his own fire reflecting off the tears on his face, his loose hair floating around him almost ethereally. His glare searched the garden, seeking out the Kyoshi warrior who had killed Sokka, and when he saw her, hiding to the side of the firebender like a coward, he struck out. The firebender took advantage of his focus being elsewhere and threw a focused ball of fire at his unguarded side. It threw him backwards several feet and he landed against a tree, dazed.

Sokka moved.

He struck Susumu in the side of the head with the butt of one of his fans, but where some people would have been knocked out by such a blow, she rolled with it, the fan glancing off to the side, and she turned on him with a snarl.

“I knew this was coming.”

Sokka swiped the sharp, bladed edge of the fan in a motion that would have opened up the sides of her mouth all the way to the back of her teeth had she not dodged, leaning away from him and avoiding the fan.

“You wanted this for yourself. You wanted the glory, _my_ glory.”

Sokka batted away her hands filled with fire as they approached his head and aimed a kick at her stomach.

“Not enough that you killed the Ambassador? You have to kill the Fire Lord too?”

“ _You’re wrong_.” Sokka ground out through gritted teeth. He leaned in and grabbed Susumu’s topknot, and for the first time in the fight, he saw fear flicker across her face. She twisted in his grip, her hands sparking but without the space she needed to properly firebend. “I didn’t kill Ambassador Sokka.”

Sokka raised the fan in his other hand, and with one swipe, slashed her throat. Her eyes widened, and as blood began to bubble from the wound, and out of her mouth, he leaned down and hissed into her ear. “I _am_ Ambassador Sokka.”

Sokka reeled backwards as she slumped away from him, the light leaving her eyes. Breathing heavily, he wiped a hand across his face, smearing blood and paint as he did, but not caring. Where was-

Zuko threw himself at Sokka with a howl. His previously incandescent white robes were now torn, scorched, and slightly bloody, flowing out behind him as he moved. Sokka stepped back and Zuko’s reaching hands fell short of him.

“Zuko!”

“Shut _up_!”

And now his hands were on fire again.

“Zuko, it’s me!”

“I don’t care!”

Sokka swept aside two blasts of fire in either direction, raising his fans only to defend himself.

“Please, listen to me!”

“You killed Sokka!”

A ring of fire exploded upwards from the grass all around them, trapping the two men in a circle of flames.

Sokka dodged the next fireball sent his way, but the one after that caught the hem of his skirt on fire. The fabric smouldered rather than going up instantly, but he knew that if he didn’t put it out soon, the whole thing would burn him alive. He had other priorities at the moment, however.

“Zuko, stop!”

“Why should I?” Another fireball whizzed past Sokka’s ear. “Did you stop when you _murdered_ him?”

“Please!”

“WHY WON’T YOU FIGHT ME?”

“Because I-” Sokka didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as the flames surrounding them grew higher and hotter, the space within their circle scorching like an oven. Sokka knew where they were in the garden, if he could just-

He threw himself through the wall of flames, feeling their heat scorch his skin, and burning his hair, before he landed with a splash in the empty turtleduck pond. _Thank the spirits._

He didn’t have time for a respite though, before Zuko was upon him.

The Fire Lord, and Sokka thought he had never looked more like he deserved the title, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the pond, shoving him up against a tree with one hand, and holding a blazing ball of heat in the other.

“I’m going to burn you until there is nothing left,” he whispered harshly into Sokka’s ear, “just like you did to _him_.”

“Zuko!” Katara’s voice sounded from the other end of the garden, and behind Zuko’s head, Sokka could see his sister and all of their friends at the gate, which had been forced open, presumably by Toph. Zuko didn’t seem to hear, or maybe didn’t want to.

Instead, he pressed his burning hand to the centre of Sokka’s chest.

Sokka _screamed._

And suddenly, the pressure was gone, the burning pain was gone. Sokka slumped against the tree, sliding to the ground as his legs gave out.

“Sokka?”

~

Zuko knew that scream. He recognised that scream.

_Oh spirits._

What had he done?

~

Sokka looked up to see Zuko staring down at him with horror, all the fight gone out of him. All the fires around the garden went out as Zuko fell to his knees in front of Sokka.

“Zuko...”

“Sokka… Oh spirits, what have I done?”

“It’s okay.”

“No, no no no… Katara!” Zuko called, and suddenly she was there, along with Aang, Toph, and Dad.

“Zuko, what’s-” Katara cut off and her face hardened. “Is that-”

“Please help him!” Zuko whimpered.

“ _Help_ him? He killed Sokka!”

“Katara...” Sokka whispered, and she went very still.

“Tui and La...”

And then there was a glowing ball of water over his chest, and Sokka closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the blackness.

~

Zuko couldn’t stop pacing. He, Katara, Aang, Hakoda, Toph, Ty Lee, Mai, and Suki were practically barricaded in the palace infirmary. And Sokka. _Sokka_.

Sokka was alive.

Zuko’s mind was reeling.

So much had happened in the past two hours, but he wasn’t able to focus on anything except that one fact.

_Sokka was alive._

And Zuko had tried to kill him.

With a small groan, he turned to face the wall and placed both palms and his forehead against it.

Suki looked up at him from the chair she was sitting in, holding a lump of ice wrapped in cloth against her head. Though it was streaked in dried blood from her head wound, her face was a mask of relief, joy, hope.

“Zuko, please sit down.”

“No.”

Toph spoke from where she was standing in front of the door, feet placed apart, shoulders hunched and fists clenched. “Sit down, Sparky, all your pacing is getting in the way of me seeing if anyone approaches the door.”

“Fine.” Zuko sat on the floor and leaned his head against the wall.

Hakoda and Aang were with Katara in the room just off the hall, where she was working on healing the burn on Sokka’s chest. When she first saw the burn, after they had taken Sokka to the infirmary, Zuko thought she was going to kill him, but she had just looked at him with such understanding that he felt like he was going to be sick. She hadn’t asked him to, but Zuko had left the room. He had stood outside the door, barely breathing for long minutes, before Suki had woken up and asked what was going on.

Zuko had breathed _Sokka’s alive_ , and then they had both burst into tears holding one another. Toph had rolled her eyes and stomped over to the door to sense anyone approaching. And now they were all waiting for something to happen. For Katara to be done healing Sokka, or for someone to approach the door, friendly or unfriendly.

In the end, the thing that happened was Sokka woke up.

~

When Sokka opened his eyes, it was to see his father’s face above his own, unshed tears shining in his blue eyes, and an expression of disbelieving hope in them as he stared down at Sokka.

“Dad?” He smiled and reached up a hand. Hakoda took it with a sob and held his son’s hand to his chest.

“Oh, Sokka… Spirits, son, we thought you were-”

“I’m sorry dad, I had to.”

“You had to let us all believe you were dead?” Katara’s tone was angry, but her face was open relief as she joined their father in the space over Sokka’s head.

Aang was standing at the foot of the bed. He didn’t say anything, but just looked at Sokka with folded arms and a look that made him want to shrink down into the bed a little. Man, he had a heart of gold but that kid could be scary when he wanted to be.

Sokka looked around the room, and saw that only three people were with him. Panicking suddenly, he pushed himself up onto his elbows, hardly noticing the stretch and burn of the freshly healed scar tissue on his chest. “Where’s Zuko?”

“He’s outside, him and Suki and Toph, and Ty Lee and Mai.”

“I need to see him.”

“Sokka, he-”

“I don’t care. Please.”

Katara nodded, and went to the door without looking away from her brother, like she thought he might disappear if her eyes left him for a second. She opened the door and poked her head round, murmuring to someone on the other side. When she reappeared, she looked solemn, and she stepped into the room to make room for the man behind her.

Zuko didn’t meet Sokka’s eyes as he entered. He hung his head, his hair falling over his face and obscuring his features, but Sokka knew him well enough by now to know what his face was doing.

“Zuko,” he called, “come here.”

Zuko flinched slightly, but did as he was told, shuffling over to stand by Sokka’s bed, taking the space where Katara had been. Sokka reached out and took his hand. Zuko jumped and raised his head, and their eyes met.

“Sokka...” he whispered.

“I’m right here.” Sokka replied, letting a small smile cross his features. To his shock, this seemed to make Zuko’s face crumple, and a tear rolled down his face.

“Spirits… Sokka, I’m so sorry!”

“No, if anyone should be sorry, it’s me.”

“Sokka, I hurt you! I _burned_ you.”

“It’s okay!” Sokka pulled back the blanket covering his chest and revealed the angry red mark that remained. “Look, we match!”

Zuko couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped as a half-sob. “Agni above, I missed you.”

And then, he kissed him.

Sokka hadn’t been expecting it, but it didn’t take him long to reach up and tangle his hand in the long strands that fell around him as Zuko leaned down. The press of their lips together was messy and at an odd angle, and Zuko tasted of tears and ash, and he was half sobbing, half laughing, and Sokka was pretty sure he was too, but it was perfect.

When they finally pulled apart, Sokka looked up at Zuko with wide-eyed amazement. “I thought me being with you was too dangerous.”

“Fuck that.” Zuko barked, startling Sokka, who grinned up at him. “When I thought you were dead, it was the worst time in my life, and that means a lot, coming from me. No, it was the worst because I had never been able to tell you how I really feel, I think the last words we had said to each other were angry, and I was angry at myself because I lost the most important thing in the world to me because I was too much of a coward. And I was wrong, clearly I was wrong, you already have a target on your back, being with me won’t change that, so, fuck it.”

“You really mean it?” Sokka breathed, gazing up at Zuko with wonder.

“If you’ll still have me.” Zuko looked suddenly nervous, shifting from foot to foot as though he thought Sokka would have changed his mind in the thirty seconds since he had kissed him back so enthusiastically.

“Of course I will.” Sokka shuffled himself sideways and patted the bed next to him. Zuko looked up at Hakoda, who Sokka realised had been in the room the whole time, along with Katara and Aang, and now apparently also Suki, Toph, Mai, Ty Lee, and Bato. Hakoda looked from the Fire Lord to his son, and bowed his head with a smile. That was all Zuko was waiting for. He sat down on the bed and swung his legs up next to Sokka.

One thing that Sokka was grateful for was the size of the beds in the palace, even in the infirmary. Once Zuko was situated beside Sokka, Hakoda sat on the bed next to Sokka’s head and smoothed a hand through his son’s hair.

“I’m sorry, Dad...” Sokka whispered.

“It’s okay, son. I’m sure you had your reasons, and I know you will tell me later, but for now I’m just _so_ glad to see you again. I can’t promise I won’t get mad after though!”

Sokka grinned. “I’m sure you will.”

“Why?” Aang piped up, sitting on the foot of the bed. “What did you do?”

“I’ll tell you later!” Sokka protested.

“Leave him alone,” Katara said with a smile, climbing up beside Aang and resting a hand on Sokka’s ankle, “needling him is my job as his sister.”

Suki sniffed where she was leaning against the wall, and Sokka looked at her questioningly.

“I’m so sorry!”

“What are _you_ sorry for?” Sokka asked, surprised.

“I should have protected you! You were a part of our team, and we let you both down.”

Sokka hesitated. “You didn’t.” He said, finally. He would tell her about Lanying later. “I’m glad you weren’t there, actually, you might have been killed. It was better this way.”

At that, she threw herself across the room into his arms. He caught her with a surprised oof, and allowed her to sniffle into his shoulder.

Toph stomped over to the bed and punched him in the shoulder, hard. “Don’t you _ever_ do that again, Snoozles.”

Sokka grinned and reached out his free arm to ruffle her hair. “Just get on the bed.” She didn’t argue, and Bato also moved over to stand behind Hakoda, his hands on his shoulders. Sokka looked at the pair with a tired grin, then at all his friends around him, and finally down at Zuko, cuddled up to his side. Yes, he thought to himself, _this is what I was fighting for, and it was so worth it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thank you especially to everyone who's commented so far, I see you, I love you, reading your thoughts and your keysmashes makes my day every time I see them! If you enjoyed my writing, or would like to listen to my podfics, consider checking out my profile, or follow me on [tumblr](https://zukka-soulmates.tumblr.com/) to see what I'm up to!
> 
> I am once again telling you to read [(or listen to)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26774158) [Protective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24024061) by crosspin. This chapter also takes inspiration from it ("Look, we match!") and I will eternally scream about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Other works that inspired this fic include:  
> [Those Who Favour Fire](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415320) by CSHfic and VSfic [(podfic available)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600218),  
> [Protective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24024061) by crosspin [(podfic available)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26774158),  
> [i'm holding my breath for you; there's no doubt in my mind that if you could, then you would try](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25322800) by takenbadgering,  
> and the rest of the fics in my [Spymaster Sokka collection](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Zukka_Spymaster_AU)
> 
> Come say hi on tumblr at[the-boys-from-ba-sing-se](https://the-boys-from-ba-sing-se.tumblr.com/) or [unexpected-readings-of-poetry](https://unexpected-readings-of-poetry.tumblr.com/)


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